Nigeria plans portal to help parents verify tuition payments

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) plans to launch an online portal allowing parents to check whether their children’s tuition fees have been paid under the federal student loan scheme, in a move aimed at improving transparency and preventing duplicate payments.

The proposed platform will enable parents to enter their children’s matriculation numbers and verify whether tuition fees have been settled or remain outstanding. It will display payment status without disclosing the amount paid or other sensitive financial information.

NELFUND Managing Director and Chief Executive, Akintunde Sawyerr, recently announced the initiative at a press conference in Abuja.

He said the portal was being developed in response to concerns that some students whose tuition had already been covered by the Fund continued to seek money from their parents without revealing their loan status.

“This development is based on us recognising that there are still many students out there who are double dipping; they’re taking from NELFUND and still stressing their parents. So we’re going to put an end to that,” Sawyerr said.

The initiative also comes after Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, raised concerns in August that some students might have received loans through NELFUND without their parents’ knowledge.

Digital wallets to streamline tuition payments

Alongside the proposed parents’ portal, NELFUND is piloting a restricted digital wallet system designed to make tuition payments more transparent and reduce errors in the disbursement process.

Under the arrangement, approved funds will be linked to the beneficiary’s institution, allowing students to authorise tuition payments through their mobile phones. The money will not be handed to students as cash or transferred into their personal bank accounts.

Sawyerr said the system would address situations in which students, unaware that NELFUND had already settled their tuition bills, paid the same fees independently. Such cases had sometimes led to duplicate payments and difficulties securing refunds from institutions.

The digital tokens will be tied to designated institutions, preventing beneficiaries from diverting the funds to other purposes.

“We’re placing the power for payment in the hands of the students. The power for payment to the institution is going to now be walletised so that they can click on their phone and the institution can be paid,” he said.

NELFUND Executive Director Mustapha Iyal said the wallet-based payment system was undergoing pilot implementation, with more than 400,000 applications in the system at the time of the briefing.

The arrangement is expected to take effect in the 2026/2027 academic session. The Fund is also working to ensure that institutions acknowledge payments promptly and that students receive timely notifications.

Iyal urged prospective beneficiaries to apply early rather than wait until examinations or fee-payment deadlines approach, cautioning that late applications could create avoidable payment complications.

NELFUND prepares for rising demand

The Fund is also planning two-day regional workshops across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones to prepare tertiary institutions, students and other stakeholders for the upgraded NELFUND 2.0 application system.

The sessions are expected to bring together institutional heads, bursars, information technology administrators, students and community representatives. Discussions will focus on application processing, verification procedures, technical readiness and public awareness.

Sawyerr said NELFUND currently has more than one million beneficiaries and expects the number of applications to rise significantly, potentially reaching two million. He clarified that the projection concerns applications rather than an increase in available funding.

To manage the anticipated demand, the Fund is strengthening its technology infrastructure, administrative procedures and support systems for participating institutions.

Portal launch details awaited

The proposed parents’ portal and the digital wallet initiative are part of NELFUND’s broader effort to strengthen accountability, improve payment tracking and reduce errors in administering student loans.

While the digital wallet system is undergoing pilot implementation, the parents’ portal remains at the planning stage. The Fund has yet to announce a launch date or provide details on how parents will access the service.

Once operational, the portal could give families a direct way to verify tuition-payment status, helping them make informed decisions before sending money to students for fees already covered by the loan scheme.