Financial Aid for Boosting Access to Higher Education in Nigeria: The Case of Nigerian Education Loans Fund

Access to higher education in Nigeria is constrained by certain factors related to several factors, chef among which is finance. In this wise, the disparity in student enrolment between the wards of the rich and the poor as well as between different sections of the country is all too glaring and is occasioned by early contact with European missionaries and poverty to mention a few. As a culmination of previous efforts to boost access to higher education, the Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2024, was signed into law in February, 2024, and was conceived to replace the earlier Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act 2023, ‘’as a body corporate to receive, manage and invest funds to provide loans to eligible Nigerians for higher education, vocational training and skills acquisition.’’ The purpose of this study is to examine the establishment of NELFUND vis-à-vis its primary responsibility of ensuring that no Nigerian student aspiring to higher education is denied the opportunity to do so through the provision of necessary resources to fund such aspirations. Using descriptive data obtained from the agency, this study examines the expected roles and possible impact of NELFUND on access to higher education in the country. The study recommends that NELFUND being one of the practical measures in the country should not be allowed to go under as its existence and sustainability should be guaranteed from political expedience.

Keywords: NELFUND, Student Enrolment, Access to Higher Education, Student Loans.