Refunded on Paper, Unpaid in Reality: UDUS Students’ long wait for fees refund despite NELFUND disbursements

By Safwan Abubakar

When Jabiru Sani received a notification in January 2026 confirming that the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) had paid his school fees to his school, the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto (UDUS), he thought his financial worries were over.

Like many NELFUND beneficiaries, the 400-level student of Education and Extension Services had already paid his school fees before the loan scheme disbursed funds to the university. After completing the refund process, a procedure he said took less than three days, he expected the money he had personally paid to be returned within a reasonable time. 

Nearly six months later, he is still waiting.

“NELFUND disbursed my fees to the school in January 2026, and I completed the refund process almost immediately,” Mr Sani told Campus Reporter. “But it has now been almost six months, and I have not received anything.”

Mr Sani’s ordeal reflects the frustrations of several UDUS students who told Campus Reporter that although NELFUND had paid their institutional fees, they were yet to receive refunds for payments they had earlier made themselves.

For students who depend on the funds to offset living expenses and other academic needs, the prolonged wait has raised questions about the efficiency of the refund process and the accountability mechanisms for managing NELFUND-related payments.

“We do not understand why UDUS is still holding our money for months without refunding students or providing any explanation, especially after the refund procedures have been completed,” Mr Sani said.

Several students expressed similar concerns in interviews with Campus Reporter, indicating prolonged delays between the disbursement of the fees by NELFUND and the eventual refund of payments to beneficiaries by the university.

Understanding NELFUND

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) was established under the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2024, signed into law by President Bola Tinubu on 3rd of April, 2024, to improve access to higher education by providing interest-free institutional loans and upkeep support for eligible Nigerian students.

The Fund officially opened its student loan application portal on 24th of May, 2024, allowing students in public tertiary institutions to apply for tuition and upkeep support. Under the scheme, institutional fees are paid directly to universities, while upkeep allowances are paid into students’ personal bank accounts.

Where a beneficiary had already paid institutional fees before NELFUND made payment to the university, the institution is expected to refund the excess payment after verifying the student’s claim. It is this refund process that has become the subject of complaints by some UDUS students interviewed by Campus Reporter.

Since its launch, NELFUND has grown into Nigeria’s largest tertiary education financing programme. As of July 2026, the Fund has received 1,800,489 loan applications and supported 1,635,676 students across 315 tertiary institutions nationwide. So far, it has disbursed N303.91 billion, comprising N190.06 billion paid directly to institutions as institutional fees and N113.85 billion paid to students as upkeep allowances.

Unpaid Refunds

On the 23rd of September, 2024, UDUS officially announced the receipt of N226,931,440 from NELFUND as institutional fees for 2,536 students, representing the first batch of beneficiaries for the 2024/2025 academic session. Despite the announcement, many students reported waiting several months before receiving refunds for fees they had already paid.

The situation resurfaced during the 2025/2026 academic session.

Aisha Mika, a 400-level English language student, said the delay has stretched far beyond a few months.

Ms Mika told Campus Reporter that she personally paid her institutional fees for the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 academic sessions before later benefiting from NELFUND. After NELFUND disbursed her institutional fees to UDUS, she immediately applied for refunds as instructed by the university.

Despite completing the refund process, she says she has yet to receive either of the two refunds.

“I paid my school fees before applying for NELFUND. Later, NELFUND paid the fees, so I applied for a refund, but the university has not refunded my money,” the student said.

Ms Mika said she submitted refund applications multiple times and repeatedly visited the designated office to follow up on her case.

“I’ve gone there several times to submit letters and make oral complaints. Sometimes, I wouldn’t even meet the officer handling the process,” she said.

She said the university offered no clear explanation for the prolonged delay beyond instructing students to submit application letters containing their bank details, evidence of payment and personal information.

More troubling, Ms Mika said her student portal at one point indicated that her 2023/2024 refund had been processed; however, no money was credited to her account.

“The portal showed that I had been refunded, but I never received the payment, even though other students got theirs,” she added.

She initiated her 2024/2025 refund application on the 13th of August, 2025, while the 2023/24 application was initiated in 2024, but as of the time of this report, the two applications remain pending. The prolonged delay, she said, has placed additional strain on her personal finances.

On the 21st of January 2026, UDUS confirmed receiving another institutional fee disbursement from NELFUND and directed affected students to submit refund applications. However, several beneficiaries who complied with the directive told Campus Reporter they were still awaiting payment months later.

Meanwhile, NELFUND has repeatedly warned institutions against withholding refunds for students. Last month, the Fund disclosed it was working with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe 34 institutions over unpaid refunds.

NELFUND Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyerr, said a five-member team, comprising operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and internal auditors, has been sent to the affected institutions.

Mr Sawyerr said the probe followed a surge in complaints received from affected students.

“What happened is that a lot of schools got double payment. Some from the students, some from us,” Mr Sawyerr said.

“The refund process is entirely out of our hands. It is the recipient of the double payments that is obliged to make refunds to the students.”

He explained that because the student loan scheme commenced in the middle of an academic session, many students had already paid their institutional fees before NELFUND later disbursed the same fees to their institutions, making them eligible for refunds.

While noting that some institutions had promptly refunded affected students, Mr Sawyerr acknowledged that others had failed to do so.

“Some have been very good at this. Others haven’t been so good at it. We tend to take the view that perhaps it’s not intentional because some institutions simply do not have a proper refund process,” he said.

The NELFUND Managing Director also noted that the agency does not have the legal authority to compel universities to refund students, although many affected beneficiaries have copied complaints to the EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

However, UDUS NELFUND Desk Officer, Sufiyanu Bello, rejected claims that the university was responsible for most of the delays.

Mr Bello said many outstanding cases involve students who have not completed or submitted the required refund applications.

“The issue of delayed refunds is not from us but, in most cases, from the students. Even now, some students are still submitting their applications,” he said.

Mr Sufiyanu disclosed that he recently met with the Chairman of the Students’ Union Caretaker Committee and requested that students with outstanding refunds from the 2023/2024, 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 academic sessions submit their applications for verification.

He maintained that once applications are received and verified, eligible students are refunded.

“When students submit their applications, we verify the supporting documents and process the refund if they are entitled to it,” he explained.

He also claimed that the university had refunded about 90 per cent of eligible beneficiaries, adding that most outstanding cases were awaiting application submissions, verification, or the resolution of banking issues.

“Sometimes, payments fail because of issues with students’ bank accounts. Once such problems are corrected, we resend the payment,” he noted. 

But students who spoke to Campus Reporter narrated a different story.

Waiting for an Unexpected Alert 

One student, Shahada*, said she has been waiting for a refund since March 2026, when NELFUND successfully deposited the funds to the university.

Having completed the university’s refund application process and submitted the required letter to the Bursary Department, she expected the excess payment to be returned within a reasonable period.

Months later, however, her application has made little progress.

According to her, there has been no official communication explaining the prolonged delay.

“The only information available to me is that my refund status is still showing ‘Initialised ’. I have not received any explanation for why it has remained that way for several months,” she explained.

Shahada, who resides at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH), said the distance from the university NELFUND office has limited her ability to make repeated follow-up visits or lodge complaints in person.

She said the delay has taken both a financial and academic toll.

“The university is owing me N115,860. My phone is currently faulty, and I had hoped to use the refund to buy a new one. As a student, having a functional phone is essential for my academic activities,” she lamented.

She urged the university to improve the refund process by ensuring timely payments and providing students with regular updates on the status of their applications, rather than leaving them uncertain.

Graduation Before Disbursement, Refund Still Out of Reach

Shamsudeen Abubakar, a graduate from English Education, said NELFUND disbursed his institutional fees after he had completed his studies, leaving him uncertain about whether he would ever receive the refund.

Mr Abubakar said he applied for the student loan during his final semester while still an undergraduate. Although his NELFUND dashboard later showed that about N80,000 had been successfully disbursed to UDUS, he said he has yet to receive the corresponding refund despite submitting an application.

“I applied for the loan while I was still a student. The money was later disbursed after I had graduated, and my dashboard shows that the institutional fees were paid to the university. But I have not received my refund,” he lamented.

Mr Abubakar said he did not pursue the matter aggressively after learning that several other students, especially those still on campus, were experiencing similar delays.

“I applied for a refund, but I didn’t insist because I saw that many students on campus had not received theirs. A friend even told me the university declined to refund him because he had graduated.”