The Nigerian Education Loan Fund has disclosed that more than 1.58 million Nigerian students have so far benefited from the federal government’s student loan scheme, with total disbursement exceeding N282.2bn.

This was contained in NELFUND’s Daily Status Report shared on Sunday, showing cumulative figures from the launch of the student loan portal on May 24, 2024, to May 11, 2026.

According to the report, the agency received a total of 1,788,503 applications from students seeking financial support for tuition and upkeep allowances across tertiary institutions in the country.

The report stated that 1,586,921 students had already benefited from the scheme as of May 11, 2026.

NELFUND said a total of N183,911,415,657.25 had been disbursed for institutional fees, while N98,291,592,000 was paid as upkeep allowances to beneficiaries.

The combined figure brought the total loan disbursement under the programme to N282,203,007,657.25.

The agency further revealed that 301 institutions had benefited from the tuition payment component of the intervention programme.

Data contained in the report also showed that 360 additional applications were recorded compared to the previous day, while the number of fresh applications remained unchanged at 0.0 per cent growth.

NELFUND described the initiative as part of the Federal Government’s commitment to expanding access to higher education and supporting students through financial assistance.

The student loan scheme was introduced under the administration of President Bola Tinubu as part of efforts to reduce the financial burden on students in tertiary institutions across Nigeria.