The recent delay in the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) application process has again exposed the profound digital and administrative weaknesses in many Nigerian tertiary institutions.
Out of the over 400 universities, polytechnics, and colleges in the country, 203 schools were unable to upload their students’ data to the Student Loan Application System (SLAS), forcing NELFUND to reopen its portal for 48 hours.
According to the Fund’s Director of Strategic Communications, Oseyemi Oluwatuyi, the decision to extend the deadline was to give defaulting institutions another chance to verify and upload their students’ details. He warned that failure to comply within the period would automatically disqualify students from those schools from accessing the education loan, a policy designed to make higher education affordable for all Nigerians.
Interestingly, this simple administrative lapse reveals a much deeper problem: a lack of digital capacity in many Nigerian higher education institutions. According to experts, this inability to handle online verification, e-portals, and other critical digital data management requirements reflects a long-standing issue of inadequate ICT infrastructure and insufficient manpower.
Interestingly, this is not the first time such gaps have surfaced. A recent review of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) projects revealed that many institutions are also unable to access their allocated funds simply because they lack qualified personnel to process online applications. Filling TETFUND forms requires a level of digital literacy and project management skills that many schools, especially state-owned ones, still lack.
The implication is that while billions of naira meant for infrastructure and research sit untouched, campuses continue to battle poor facilities, unreliable internet, and outdated administrative systems.
Education analysts believe the NELFUND delay is a wake-up call for the government and school authorities to invest in digital infrastructure and capacity building. Until Nigerian institutions can fully operate in a technology-driven education system, even the best-intentioned interventions, from NELFUND to TETFUND, will continue to face needless delays.
At the heart of the issue is not just technology, but also capacity —the human skill to manage it effectively.
