The Federal Government has been urged to integrate the Nigeria Education Loan Fund with Nigeria Revenue Service income data to strengthen student loan recovery.
The recommendation was contained in a policy brief released on Monday by a Nigerian higher education policy think tank, The iRead To Live Initiative.
Since its portal launch in May 2024, it has disbursed a total of N355.87bn in student loans as of September 2026.
The brief titled “Can NELFUND Sustain Itself? Financing Nigeria’s Student Loan Scheme,” warned that the N355.87bn disbursed by NELFUND to about 850,000 beneficiaries could be difficult to recover under the existing repayment architecture.
The think tank argued that Nigeria had roughly 18 months to strengthen the loan recovery infrastructure before beneficiaries who complete the mandatory two-year post-National Youth Service Corps grace period become subject to enforcement.
