Check Before You Apply: NELFUND Names Fraudulent Loan Portals, Warns Nigerian Students

• The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) is a body dedicated to providing loan facilities to help Nigerian students stay in school
• Since its inception in 2024, over 100,000 students have received disbursements to take care of their tuition fees and monthly stipends
• However, the body has now exposed a fraudulent website designed like NELFUND's and extracting sensitive data from Nigerian students

Ruth Okwumbu-Imafidon, a journalist with Legit.ng, has over a decade of experience in business reporting across digital and mainstream media.

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has raised alarm over a fake online loan portal targeting Nigerian students with fraudulent messages.

NELFUND warned the students to be cautious of such portals and their misleading messages directing students to apply.

NELFUND’s Director of Strategic Communications, Oseyemi Oluwatuyi, released a statement in Abuja on Monday, with the warning.

He said:

“The attention of NELFUND has been drawn to a fraudulent message currently circulating online, falsely claiming that President Bola Tinubu has directed the reopening of the NELFUND Student Loan portal.

“The portal is with a link to a fake website: https://nelfund-student-loan-2025.po-rt-al.com/NELFUND/

“We wish to categorically state that this website is FAKE, and the information contained in the message is false and misleading.”

Oluwatuyi urged the public, particularly students, parents, and guardians, to be aware and avoid clicking on such unverified links.

She reiterated that NELFUND only has one official portal for student loan application, and that is: https://nelf.gov.ng

As reported by Channels News, she encouraged the public to avoid submitting personal or financial information on suspicious websites.

She called for the public to report suspicious messages and website links to NELFUND via email using info@nelf.gov.ng

The NELFUND executive advised students to get current information and reach out through the official social media platform @nelfund on Instagram and X, and Nigerian Education Loan Fund – NELFUND on Facebook and LinkedIn.

NELFUND said it is committed to transparency, safety, and fairness in the loan application process, adding that it would always make announcements through its verified platforms.

NELFUND deploys IT team to universities

Recall that following issues with student loan applications, NELFUND announced plans to deploy IT teams to linked institutions across Nigeria and integrate 'Student Loan' directly as a payment option on their portals.

This is expected to ease the loan application process and prevent fraud by the stakeholders.

The Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, noted that the proposed integration would eliminate several bottlenecks in the student loan application process.

This is in line with earlier statements from NELFUND, clarifying that it would never disburse tuition fees to the students, but would pay directly to the institution.

NELFUND warns institutions against fraud

In related news, NELFUND has threatened legal action against institutions found to be extorting students or withholding information.

Legit.ng earlier reported that some students were still being extorted by the institutions even after loans had been disbursed in their names.

Findings revealed that the institutions were still hounding the students to pay tuition fees after NELFUND had disbursed said fees. In some cases, the institutions collected higher fees from NELFUND.

Source: Legit.ng