The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has fixed May 24 for the opening of the student loan portal.

Akintunde Sawyerr, managing director of the fund, announced the development in a statement on Thursday.

Sawyerr said the opening of the portal for student loan applications marks a significant milestone in the current administration’s goal of fostering accessible and inclusive education.

“Through the portal, students can now access loans to pursue their academic aspirations without financial constraints,” the statement reads.

“The portal provides a user-friendly interface for students to submit their loan applications conveniently.

“We encourage all eligible students to take advantage of this opportunity to invest in their future and contribute to the growth and development of our nation.

“Students can access the portal at www.nelf.gov.ng to begin their applications.”

President Bola Tinubu, in June 2023, enacted the student loan policy to grant interest-free loans to needy students.

The scheme was slated to commence between September and October 2023, but implementation was repeatedly deferred.

The policy was heavily criticised for its stringent requirements, which many stakeholders argued would render the scheme inaccessible.

In March 2024, the president wrote to the national assembly requesting the repeal and reenactment of the law.

On April 3, Tinubu re-enacted the policy, effectively repealing the old law and reintroducing a new version.

The speakers of Nigeria’s 36 state houses of assembly have supported the ongoing process by the national assembly to create state police.

The speakers made their resolution known in a communique issued at the end of the meeting of the conference of speakers of state legislatures held in Abuja on Thursday.

Adebo Ogundoyin, speaker of the Oyo house of assembly and chairman of the conference, signed the communique.

The speakers said state policing would check the negative trend of insecurity in the country.

“To achieve this, the Conference appeals to the National Assembly, Presidency and other relevant Stakeholders to leverage on the ongoing constitution review exercise,” the communique reads.

The two chambers of the national assembly are working to amend some provisions of the 1999 constitution to include items such as state police.

Last month, Kayode Egbetokun, inspector-general of police (IGP), said Nigeria is not “mature” for state police.

On February 15, the federal government set up a committee to explore the creation of state police in the country.

Mohammed Idris, minister of information and national orientation, said President Bola Tinubu and governors have agreed on modalities for the concept.

The minister added that a series of meetings would take place to determine the workability of a decentralised police force.

“Some of you are aware of our activities in the area of investigating virtual currency trading and the likes of cryptocurrencies,” he said.

“They are potential platforms to fund terrorism. A lot of us don’t understand that. Some of our discoveries during investigation of some of these platforms were mind boggling.

“We thought Binance was a major one. Yes, it was. We are prosecuting them. But there are other platforms we have discovered.

“They used some of these young men. Some of them don’t know that the people who gave them money to trade are people who fund terrorism.”

The EFCC boss said there is a need to adopt technology in tracking money used to fund terrorism in the country.

Olukoyede narrated how he was informed by a friend in the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that dollar bills across the world can be tracked with technology.

“It is important for us to adopt the use of technology,” he said.

“I was comparing notes with an assistant director in the FBI — a friend of mine. He said: ‘My brother, from our systems in the US, we can track every printed dollar anywhere in the world’.”

The EFCC boss added that Nigeria must get to that stage where technology can be deployed to track naira notes used for terrorism financing.