N7.78m Reaches Enugu's SUMAS as NELFUND Settles Fees for 26 Students

A small payment from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) is showing how the Federal Government's student loan scheme works on the ground. The Fund has paid N7,786,400 to cover the fees of 26 students at the State University of Medical and Applied Sciences (SUMAS), Igbo-Eno, Enugu State.

The payment was confirmed in a letter dated July 6, 2026, from the university's Vice-Chancellor, Prof. James Ogbonna, to NELFUND's Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyerr. The letter, titled "Acknowledgement of payment for 26 Students from State University of Medical and Applied Sciences, Igbo-Eno, Enugu State," confirmed that the university had received the full amount. Spread across the 26 beneficiaries, that comes to roughly N299,000 per student on average.

Refunds for students who already paid

One detail in the letter matters for families. Ogbonna said the university had already started refunding students who paid their fees for the 2025/2026 academic session out of pocket. In other words, once NELFUND covers a student's fees, anyone who had already settled the bill themselves is entitled to get that money back.

The bigger picture

The SUMAS payment is one of many. Figures from NELFUND's dashboard, as of September 3, 2026, show how far the programme has grown since its student loan portal opened on May 24, 2024:

• 1,659,853 student loan applications processed

• N355.87 billion disbursed in total

• 319 institutions reached

• N192.89 billion paid as institutional fees

• N162.98 billion paid as upkeep allowances

Institutional fees make up a little over half of everything disbursed. Upkeep allowances, the smaller share, go straight to students to support their day to day educational needs.

What this means for students

NELFUND was set up to widen access to higher education by covering two of the biggest costs a student faces: school fees and living expenses. The SUMAS letter shows the fee side in action, with the money going directly to the institution and refunds following for those who had paid early. For students at any of the 319 institutions on the Fund's list, the dashboard figures suggest the scheme is now operating at serious scale.