NELFUND unveils tokenised system that puts fee approval in students’ hands

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has started piloting a school-locked token that lets students approve their own fee payments. The token works for one school only, so the money goes straight to the institution and never reaches the student.

NELFUND’s Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyerr, announced the pilot at a press briefing on Wednesday, stating that the fund has received nearly 400,000 applications.

The fund says the change is meant to stop students from paying fees it has already paid. It found that students were not being told quickly enough when their fees had been settled, so some paid a second time.

Sawyerr gave an example: NELFUND pays a school on Monday, the student pays the same fees by Wednesday, and only learns of the first payment on Friday. He called it an honest mistake. The school then has to refund the student.

How NELFUND’s token works

Students approve payments through an app on their phones, and the money goes directly to their school. The token cannot be sent to a personal account or to another school. If a student has an approved payment of ₦200,000, for instance, it can only go to their school’s account, and if the student does not approve it, the money stays where it is.

“We’re not giving the students money, but we’re giving them power,” Sawyerr said.

The fund added that the token is not a personal or mobile money wallet. It is a payment approval tied to a specific institution.

The token covers school fees only. Under NELFUND’s current process, approved institutional charges are paid directly to schools, while approved upkeep allowances go into students’ bank accounts.

The token does not change how upkeep is paid. The scheme gives eligible students interest-free loans under a law signed by President Bola Tinubu in April 2024. The pilot has started, but NELFUND has not given a timeline for full rollout.

Read also: ABU student builds independent app to simplify NELFUND loan process