Dr Samuel Onoji, the Principal and Chief Executive of the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurun, Delta has urged students of the institute to explore the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).

Onoji gave the advice recently when the Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr and his team paid him a courtesy visit in Effurun.

He said that the gesture would help the students to ease off their financial needs.

?NELFUND is established to provide financial assistance to students nationwide hence the need for our students to take advantage of the opportunity,? Onoji said.

Earlier, Sawyerr told the students that NELFUND, an initiative of the Federal Government was opened for both new and existing students in the tertiary institutions in the country.

He said that the agency would disburse the money within reasonable days of successful applications.

The managing director explained that the loan amongst others, provides financial support to qualified Nigerian students for tuition fees and other charges.

?NELFUND is an intervention agency set up by the Federal Government to support qualified Nigerian students in the tertiary institutions.

?The loan provides financial support to qualified Nigerian students for tuition fees and other charges.

?And for their upkeep during their studies in approved tertiary academic institutions and/or vocational and skills acquisition institutions within Nigeria,? he said.

Sawyerr averred that beneficiaries of the student loans may hit an estimated 2.1 million

He added that the body had since inception, disbursed over N104 billion to 613,734 students from Nigerian tertiary institutions.

?We have about 417,000 students who have registered on our portals and about 328,000 who have actually applied.

?Some have been processed, many have been looked at and most of them will get the loan,? he disclosed.

The managing director said that the agency was responsible for students in the government-owned tertiary institutions such as polytechnics where PTI is classified, universities and colleges of education.

According to him, the disbursed funds included institutional fees paid directly to the institutions of applicants and upkeep loans paid directly to the account number provided by the applicants.

He said that the loan scheme was strictly for students in tertiary institutions in line with the building principles and law.

The managing director, however, urged students to take advantage of the opportunities provided by NELFUND to improve on their well-beings while in school.

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