1,000 Plateau Polytechnic students await NELFUND loans as portal glitches frustrate applicants

No fewer than 1,000 students of the Plateau Polytechnic, Barkin Ladi, are awaiting the disbursement of loans under the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND, despite completing the verification process for the 2025/2026 academic session.

An official of the institution, Wash Pam, disclosed this on Thursday in Jos, saying the students had been captured and cleared on the institution’s portal but were yet to receive payment from NELFUND.

Mr Pam, the institution’s system and network engineer, said the school had concluded the verification of students who applied in the first batch of the scheme and forwarded the list of eligible applicants for processing.

He said the institution had completed its responsibilities and was waiting for NELFUND to begin disbursing the loans to the beneficiaries.

“We have concluded the verification of students who applied for the first batch of the NELFUND scheme, and we have forwarded the list for processing.

“We have done our part. All the students who applied and met the requirements have been cleared on our portal.

“We are now waiting for NELFUND to commence payment,” Mr Pam said.

He explained that the verification and clearance process was intended to ensure that eligible students would not be denied access to lectures or prevented from sitting for examinations while awaiting the disbursement of their loans.

The delay comes two years after the Federal Government introduced the student loan scheme, although students of Plateau Polytechnic were not enrolled at the commencement of the programme, according to the institution.

Meanwhile, some students have complained of technical difficulties while attempting to submit applications through the NELFUND portal.

A student of the institution, Blessing Selbol, said repeated system failures had made the application process difficult for many prospective beneficiaries.

“The NELFUND portal kept crashing anytime we wanted to submit our applications,” Ms Selbol said.

“Sometimes, it would show ‘session expired’ after uploading all the required documents.”

The complaints raise concerns about possible barriers facing students seeking to access the Federal Government’s education loan scheme, particularly as eligible applicants await the commencement of disbursement.

NELFUND had yet to respond to the concerns raised by the students and the institution at the time of filing this report.