By Ngozi Nwankwo
Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND, has said plans are underway to introduce specialized software aimed at ensuring that students with disabilities in higher institutions can fully take advantage of its loan scheme.
Managing Director/Chief Executive of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, disclosed this during a stakeholders’ engagement on student loan in Benin City, Edo State.
Sawyerr emphasized that the Act establishing the loan scheme guarantees equal opportunity for all, adding that NELFUND will collaborate with the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, NCPWD, to ensure more inclusivity.
“We want to see how we can make it easier for those visually impaired, so that they can actually apply for the loan. We are looking at a specific software we are going to use,” he said.
During the event, Sawyer described the initiative under President Bola Tinubu’s administration as a transformative step for education in Nigeria.
Addressing concerns about loan repayment in the event of a beneficiary’s death, he said: “The law says that, if the very person dies, that loan is not transferred to the family or anyone else. The loan is wiped out.”
Sawyerr reiterated the government’s commitment to making tertiary education accessible to all Nigerians, stating that “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came up with this initiative that no Nigerian student anywhere in Nigeria should be deprived of the opportunity to gain tertiary education because of lack of money.
On his part, Edo State Deputy Governor, Dennis Idahosa, commended the Federal Government for making the student loan scheme a reality.
