The Nigerian Government spent N223.8bn on the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) scheme between 2024 and 2025, but the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has urged the Federal Government to do more to address the deteriorating state of public universities across the country.
An analysis of data published by the Ministry of Finance shows that the government spent N143.8bn on the scheme in 2024 and another N80 billion in 2025, bringing the total expenditure to N223.8 billion within the two years.
Data published on NELFUND’s website show that beneficiaries of the scheme are spread across the country’s six geopolitical zones, with northern states accounting for 765,199 beneficiaries, compared to 530,470 in the southern part of the country.
The North-West recorded the highest number of beneficiaries among the three northern regions, with 286,267 students accessing the scheme. The North-East followed with 246,482 beneficiaries, while the North-Central recorded 232,450.
In the South-West, 312,380 students benefited from the scheme, making it the region with the highest number of beneficiaries in the southern part of the country.
The South-East recorded 121,458 beneficiaries, while the South-South had 96,182 students accessing the loans.
A state-by-state breakdown showed that Benue State recorded the highest number of beneficiaries, with 73,402 students accessing the scheme.
Osun State followed with 72,547 beneficiaries, while Borno State recorded 59,053 students.
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) had the lowest number of beneficiaries, with 3,464 students recorded.
NELFUND is a government initiative established under the Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2024, to provide interest-free education loans to eligible students in public tertiary institutions to help them finance their education.
However, the Akure Zonal Coordinator of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Adeola Egbedokun, said that the government’s intervention through the student loan scheme should not overshadow its responsibility to fund public universities and improve their infrastructure adequately.
Speaking to NewsNGR, the ASUU official said that while providing financial assistance to students was commendable, the government’s responsibility should go beyond helping students pay their school fees.
“The government’s claim of spending N223bn to settle NELFUND application is really not the substantive issue,” he told NewsNGR newspaper.
According to him, ASUU’s concern is that governments, as owners of public universities, have failed to discharge their constitutional responsibilities to the institutions adequately.
He said, “the agitation of our Union is that the owners of the Universities have recklessly abandoned their constitutional responsibility.”
The union official argued that providing loans to students does not automatically guarantee access to quality education, particularly when universities lack the necessary facilities and infrastructure to support effective teaching and learning.
“It is one thing to give students access to the University Bursaries, it is another thing to give them assess to the educational outfits of the Universities.”
He called on the government to prioritise the rehabilitation and development of university infrastructure, including classrooms, laboratories and libraries, which he said were in poor condition.
“The state of infrastructure in the universities is very, very bad. Let the government improve the infrastructure (classrooms, laboratories, libraries etc). In the same vein, why does the government feel comfortable impoverishing Nigerians? Government should empower the citizens by providing basic amenities and enabling the environment for businesses to thrive.”
The ASUU coordinator also expressed concern that relying on student loans without addressing the economic challenges facing Nigerian households could push more young people into long-term indebtedness.
He argued that improving the economic conditions of citizens would enable more parents to finance their children’s university education without necessarily depending on loans.
“This will also empower parents to sponsor their children to the university and not push our future into perpetual indebtedness.
“Nevertheless, it is good that at least the government has done something to enable some students to pay school fees,” he further noted.
His comments underscore concerns over the broader financing of higher education in Nigeria, with the union maintaining that expanding access to student loans should go hand in hand with improved funding, infrastructure and learning conditions in public universities.
In 2025, the ASUU President Professor Christopher Piwuna was quoted by Punch Newspaper as criticizing the NELFUND scheme.
“We think that the economy needs to be strong for someone to repay a loan. You cannot give me a loan without jobs or any prospects of getting a job. You cannot give me a loan when I can’t even feed myself. Even if they want to be realistic, they will realise that this type of loan is just something they fancy, but it is not rooted in any economic reality. So, we said, if you have that money, give it as a scholarship to students.”
“If you have that scholarship, give it as a grant to students. When they use it to fund education, more of the funds will get into the university, apparently. But why put that extra burden when you know that you have not developed the economy.”
