The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) is set to broaden its loan offerings to include vocational and skills acquisition programmes across the country, with Enugu State chosen as the starting point for the rollout. The initiative is expected to begin between late June and mid-July.
The development was disclosed during a strategic engagement and sensitisation visit to Enugu State, where officials from NELFUND met with representatives of the Enugu State Government to explore collaboration.
Managing Director of NELFUND, Mr Akintunde Sawyerr, highlighted the Fund’s commitment to supporting technical and vocational education across Nigeria, noting that Enugu was selected due to its readiness and alignment with the federal government’s directive to partner with proactive states.
“We are working on it now, and we’re going to have some discussions with the executive governor and his team, because we want to start it here.
The president has also instructed that we focus on areas where the governments or the institutions of state and instruments are ready to work with us, so that we can have a quick takeoff. I think that within the next six to eight weeks, you will see us kick something off,” he said.
During a tour of the Enugu Garments and Fashion Hub, Executive Director of Operations at NELFUND, Mr Iyal Mustapha, praised the state’s preparedness and infrastructure, describing Enugu as home to some of the best vocational training facilities observed so far.
“Presently, we have other states, almost more than 10 states that we have seen such but then, Enugu is one of the best.
Enugu is going to be one of the first states or one of the first locations we are looking at to start. With what I see, there is a lot of positivity.
We have seen different skill centers from the technical colleges to the vocational skill centers, like the fashion design, and they are all very positive for us at NELFUND. I would not say that Enugu will be the only state, but one of the first states to start with,” he said.
According to Mustapha, beneficiaries of the vocational loan scheme will be able to apply through an online portal once it becomes operational. The programme will cover training fees, provide stipends for personal upkeep, and supply necessary tools upon completion of training.
“We are going to have these centers in place to say if you apply from Enugu this is where to go in Enugu. We are going to pay for their training costs, we are going to be giving them upkeep and at the end of the day, they will have some working tools when they finish their training.”
“We are still trying to complete that into our guidelines. The training costs is based on what the centre is proposing, that’s what we are paying, but the institutional charges is going to be part of the loan because it’s to support them with the transport coming to these skill centres.
It’s a work in progress, and the country is always evolving. The government is seeing the value in skills and vocation just to support the community.”
Special Adviser to the Governor on Digital Economy and MSMEs and Director General of the Enugu SME Centre, Mr Arinze Chilo-Offiah, reiterated the state’s dedication to empowering young people through skill-building initiatives.
“We just wanted to show them the world class facilities we have here to let NELFUND know that we are ready to key into the skills acquisition component of the fund.
One component is to take care of school fees and upkeep of tertiary institution students, the other aspect is vocational skills. We just came from the Government Technical College (GTC) revamped world-class facilities there, we are also showing them our fashion hub.
As you can see, Enugu is ready to absorb all the support from NELFUND. They will be able to provide us with zero-interest loans for training in fashion.”
“We have about 150 industrial sewing machines here, we have world-class monogramming machines. We can sit at any given point in time, 300 plus or closer to 500,” he said.
During their visit, the NELFUND delegation also toured several key educational and vocational institutions in the state, including the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu College of Education Technical, and the Government Technical College (GTC), which is currently undergoing reconstruction.