PORT HARCOURT — The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has expressed concern over the low number of student loan applications at Rivers State University.
Speaking during a strategic engagement and sensitization campaign in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, NELFUND Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyerr, disclosed the issue through the Director of Administration, Dr. Zino Ugboma, who represented him at the event.
Sawyerr noted that the primary aim of the visit was to strengthen collaboration with the institution, but a recent internal assessment revealed disappointing figures regarding student participation in the loan programme.
According to him, while the University of Port Harcourt has recorded 3,000 applications, Rivers State University lags behind with only 1,500 applications.
He described the disparity as troubling and emphasized the need for increased awareness and engagement among students to improve access to the government-backed loan scheme.
“Going through our records, we discovered something that is not too pleasant about your university. For a university, we have up to 4,000 applicants, people who have registered.
“At the University of Port Harcourt, we have up to 3,000 people who have registered for this scheme. And then for Rivers State University, we have approximately 1,500 applicants.
“For this reason, the managing director has asked that we come here and have a talk with the university management,” he said
