The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has begun piloting a tokenised payment system to prevent students from paying their school fees twice and to eliminate refund complications.
CDA News Nigeria gathered that NELFUND Managing Director Akintunde Sawyerr disclosed this on Wednesday during a press briefing in Abuja. He explained that the new arrangement allows students to initiate payments directly to their institutions through tokens linked to their respective schools.
Under the proposed system, students will use a mobile application to authorize payments from their approved loan funds to their institutions, rather than receiving the money in their personal bank accounts. This change addresses situations where students paid their fees independently, unaware that NELFUND had already transferred the money, leading to delayed refunds.
“We want to eliminate that need for refunds. So we’re placing the power of payment in the hands of the students,” Sawyerr said. He stressed that the tokenised system restricts the funds, ensuring they cannot be transferred to personal accounts or redirected to other institutions.
NELFUND Executive Director Mustapha Iyal confirmed that the pilot phase has commenced, with close to 400,000 applications received. The scheme provides interest-free loans for institutional charges, easing the financial burden of tertiary education.
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