By IndyPress News Desk
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, has urged parents to verify whether their children have applied for and received loans from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), suggesting that some students may be accessing the scheme without their parents’ knowledge.
He made this remark during a question-and-answer session at the National Reform Media Conference in Abuja on Wednesday, August 19, 2026 while responding to a journalist who said his three children in school had not benefited from NELFUND and that they had not heard of any of their friends receiving the funding.
“Something is just telling me in my mind that you need to ask your children to be honest with you,” he said
“It is possible they’ve collected the money and they are collecting from you.”
He stated that NELFUND had recorded significant uptake among students, with beneficiaries receiving tuition support and monthly stipends.
“If there’s anything that everyone can attest to, it is this NELFUND. We’ve seen videos of students randomly rejoicing because it’s not only the tuition that was being paid, they get monthly stipends, interest-free in a high inflationary environment. It’s like a grant,” he noted.
He encouraged parents to assist their children in checking their NELFUND status and applying for the scheme where necessary.
“You can go to the website. In fact, what you can do, ask any of your three children to give you their details, and help them apply,” Oyedele said.
He added that parents who could not find the application link could visit the Ministry of Finance for assistance.
“You apply for one of those three children, and you’ll get the amount, so you can go and ask them what they have been doing,” he said.
The minister also recounted his experience supporting indigent students through his personal foundation.
“This is a very serious matter. You know, even in my personal capacity, I have one small foundation that I use to support indigent students to go to school. And many of them were still coming to me after NELFUND. I sent a link to them. Within two weeks, they said, ‘We got alert,’” he said.
The Finance Minister further noted that the uptake of NELFUND was higher in the North than in the South.
He attributed the difference to a greater scepticism toward government programmes in the South.
“You know, interestingly, the uptake is more in the North than in the South, because we spend all our energy here doubting everything that the government does,” he added.
