The Nigerian Education Loan Fund said it has extended the deadline for its Student Loan Application Portal following a surge in applications and interest across the country, officials announced on Monday.
The extension comes after NELFUND had reminded prospective applicants that the portal was scheduled to close on February 27, 2026.
The decision to allow additional days is intended to give students and institutions more time to finish the loan application process.
NELFUND’s Director of Strategic Communications, Oseyemi Oluwatuyi, said in a statement that the extension was approved in response to “a significant increase” in awareness and demand generated by the fund’s ongoing sensitisation campaign.
The extension is aimed at students who require extra time to complete their applications, those newly aware of the scheme through outreach efforts, institutions that have only recently begun academic sessions for 2025/2026, and schools that have yet to submit verified student lists, the statement said.
NELFUND’s Managing Director and Chief Executive, Akintunde Sawyerr, said the additional days would help ensure that all eligible applicants have a fair opportunity to apply before the portal eventually closes pending further communications from management.
The fund advised institutions that have not yet started the current academic session to submit an official request for an extension along with their approved academic calendar.
Students were encouraged to complete their applications on the official portal before the final closure.
Before the deadline extension, the NELFUND portal had already received 1.69 million applications and disbursed N183.8 billion through the scheme, according to its latest report dated February 1, 2026.
Under the scheme, established by the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) law signed in April 2024, the Federal Government provides interest-free loans to students in public tertiary institutions to cover tuition and living expenses.
Applications for the student loan initiative originally opened in May 2024 as part of efforts to remove financial barriers to higher education, particularly for students from low-income backgrounds.
