NELFUND Pilots Token System to Prevent Double Payment of School Fees

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has begun piloting a tokenised payment system designed to prevent students from paying their school fees twice and reduce complications associated with refunds. Managing Director Akintunde Sawyerr disclosed this on Wednesday during a press briefing, explaining that the system would allow beneficiaries to authorise payments directly to their institutions through tokens linked to their respective schools. Sawyerr said the initiative was introduced after the fund identified cases in which students paid their fees independently because they had not been informed that NELFUND had already transferred the money to their institutions. He explained that a student could pay fees to meet a school’s deadline, only to discover days later that the fund had already settled the bill, leaving the student to seek a refund. Describing such cases as genuine errors rather than misconduct, Sawyerr said the new arrangement would give students greater control over the timing of institutional payments. He added that beneficiaries would receive notifications when their approved fees were ready and could authorise the transactions through an application on their phones.

Sawyerr stressed that the system would not involve transferring institutional loan funds into students’ personal bank accounts. Instead, the token would restrict payments to the specific institution for which the funds had been approved, preventing beneficiaries from redirecting the money to another school or personal account. NELFUND Executive Director Mustapha Iyal clarified that the token was institution-linked and was not a personal or mobile money wallet. He also confirmed that the pilot phase had commenced, with close to 400,000 applications received under the ongoing process. However, the officials did not establish that all the applications had been processed through the pilot or announce a date for full implementation. NELFUND administers the Federal Government’s student loan scheme under the Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2024, which provides eligible students with interest-free loans for approved institutional charges and, where requested and approved, upkeep expenses. The new token system specifically addresses institutional fee payments, while upkeep allowances remain subject to their separate payment arrangements. Its effectiveness will depend on timely communication and coordination among the fund, students and tertiary institutions.

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