NELFUND Launches Tokenised Payment System for School Fees

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has initiated a pilot scheme for a tokenised payment system aimed at preventing students from making duplicate school fee payments. Managing Director Akintunde Sawyerr announced this during a press briefing, revealing that nearly 400,000 applications have been received.

The new system allows students to authorize the payment of approved fees directly to their schools through tokens linked to the institutions, using a mobile application. This approach addresses issues where students unknowingly pay their fees after NELFUND has already made the payment, leading to administrative complications and the need for refunds.

Sawyerr illustrated this with an example where a student paid fees on Wednesday, unaware that NELFUND had already settled the bill on Monday. The new mechanism aims to give students control over payment initiation while ensuring funds are transferred directly to their institutions, eliminating the need for refunds.

Beneficiaries will receive notifications for payment readiness and can authorize transactions via their mobile phones.