Shettima touts NELFUND as poverty-breaking tool for Nigerian students

Vice-President Kashim Shettima has lauded the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) as a transformative scheme that empowers disadvantaged learners to access university education. During a Wednesday meeting with leadership from the University of Abuja, Shettima characterized this programme—launched under President Bola Tinubu's watch—as vital for severing connections between hardship and blocked educational pathways.

Shettima argued that NELFUND functions simultaneously as a mechanism for social leveling and poverty reduction, dismantling longstanding barriers that have blocked economically vulnerable Nigerians from university enrollment. The Vice-President situated the fund within the administration's wider economic policy framework, treating educational lending as integral to a comprehensive development blueprint centered on long-term economic expansion.

This NELFUND scheme marks a departure in how the federal government finances tertiary schooling for marginalized groups. Through emphasizing loans as the primary delivery tool rather than outright assistance, the initiative aims to expand university access while safeguarding financial balance.

Shettima's public backing indicates the government considers the programme fundamental to its social policy priorities. Stanley Nkwocha, Senior Special Assistant to the President for Media and Communications, distributed the Vice-President's statement during the official visit to Nigeria's capital city at one of the nation's premier federal tertiary institutions.