NELFUND Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyerr, disclosed this during a press briefing on Wednesday, October 28, explaining that the fund was reviewing its payment and communication processes to address problems affecting students, parents and tertiary institutions.

Sawyerr said the fund had identified cases in which parents continued paying school fees without knowing that NELFUND had already covered the charges. He said the situation had raised concerns about how beneficiaries, their families and institutions were informed about payments.

The issue, however, is not necessarily evidence of deliberate misconduct by students. NELFUND has also acknowledged that delayed notifications about payments made to institutions have caused some students to pay their fees independently, only to discover later that the same charges had already been settled by the fund.

To address the problem, NELFUND is testing a token-based payment system that would allow students to authorise approved tuition payments directly to their institutions. The arrangement is intended to reduce duplicate payments and the complications associated with obtaining refunds.

Under the proposed system, students would receive notifications when approved fees are ready for payment and then authorise the transaction through a digital token linked to their institution. The funds would be restricted to the designated school rather than being transferable to a student's personal bank account or another institution.

Sawyerr said the changes would be accompanied by educational sessions for students, parents and tertiary institutions to clarify how the revised payment arrangements would work.

He explained that the fund planned to organise workshops across Nigeria's six geopolitical zones to address misunderstandings and ensure stakeholders understand their responsibilities under the scheme.

The NELFUND chief said the exercise would go beyond ordinary public awareness campaigns, focusing instead on explaining changes to existing processes and helping institutions and beneficiaries adapt to them.

The fund also intends to improve how parents can confirm whether school fees have been settled, while protecting students' financial information and avoiding unnecessary disclosure of the amounts involved.

NELFUND's student loan programme provides eligible students with support for institutional charges and, where requested and approved, upkeep expenses. Under the existing arrangement, tuition payments are made directly to participating institutions, while approved upkeep allowances are paid separately to students.

NELFUND Executive Director, Mustapha Iyal, explained that the payment system uses application-linked identifiers and institution-specific arrangements to process tuition transactions. He said the token being tested should not be mistaken for a personal or mobile-money wallet because it is designed specifically to authorise payments to a designated institution.

Iyal also clarified that students can download receipts for processed payments through the NELFUND platform. However, institutions operate their own systems for issuing receipts and providing the clearance students may need for registration and other academic activities.

He disclosed that the pilot phase involved close to 400,000 applications at the time of the briefing. The figure represents applications received under the process and should not be interpreted as the number of students whose payments have already been completed through the pilot.

The payment changes follow earlier complaints about duplicate tuition payments and delays in refunding students whose fees were paid both by themselves or their families and by NELFUND. The fund has previously said that institutions receiving duplicate payments are responsible for refunding the affected students.

By introducing a system that gives students control over authorising tuition payments while restricting where the funds can go, NELFUND hopes to reduce payment errors, improve accountability and make the scheme easier for students and institutions to manage.

Reporting by TalkNaijaMedia