More than 1,000 students of Plateau Polytechnic, Barkin Ladi, are still waiting for the disbursement of their Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) loans for the 2025/2026 academic session despite completing the institution’s verification process
The institution says it has already verified and cleared all eligible applicants before forwarding their details to NELFUND for processing However, beneficiaries are yet to receive payments, while several students have also reported technical issues on the NELFUND application portal
Plateau Polytechnic Completes Student Verification
An official of the institution, Wash Pam, disclosed that over 1,000 students had been successfully verified and cleared through the school’s portal
Pam, who serves as the institution’s System and Network Engineer, explained that the first batch of applicants had completed all required verification procedures before their details were submitted to NELFUND
According to him, the institution has fulfilled its responsibilities and is now awaiting the commencement of loan disbursement by the agency
“We have concluded the verification of students who applied for the first batch of the NELFUND scheme and have forwarded the list for processing
“We have done our part All the students who applied and met the requirements have been cleared on our portal We are now waiting for NELFUND to commence payment,” he said
Verification Aims to Protect Students’ Academic Activities
Pam explained that the verification and clearance process was designed to ensure that eligible students would not lose access to lectures or be prevented from writing examinations while waiting for their student loans
Although the Federal Government introduced the student loan program two years ago, Plateau Polytechnic noted that its students were not included during the initial rollout of the scheme
Students Complain of NELFUND Portal Glitches
Despite the progress in verification, several students reported experiencing technical difficulties while trying to complete their applications on the NELFUND portal
One of the applicants, Blessing Selbol, said repeated system failures made the application process stressful for many students
According to her, the portal frequently crashed during submissions and sometimes displayed a “session expired” error after applicants had uploaded all the required documents
These recurring issues have raised concerns about whether technical challenges could prevent some eligible students from accessing the Federal Government’s education loan scheme
NELFUND Yet to Address Complaints
As students continue to await loan disbursement, NELFUND has not officially responded to the concerns raised by applicants or the management of Plateau Polytechnic regarding the reported portal glitches and payment delay
Many affected students now hope the agency will begin disbursing approved loans soon to enable them to continue their studies without financial difficulties
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