Tinubu Meets NELFUND Chairman Jim Ovia, MD Akintunde Sawyerr at State House

President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday met with Jim Ovia, founder of Zenith Bank and Chairman of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND, and Akintunde Sawyerr, Managing Director of NELFUND, at the State House in Abuja.

Ovia and Sawyerr were said to have arrived at the State House at about 5:15pm.

The meeting comes barely 48 hours after Ovia spoke on how NELFUND is expanding access to university education across the country.

Speaking in an interview on Channels Television on Sunday, Ovia, who chairs NELFUND, said many young Nigerians would not have attended university without the student loan scheme.

“Yes, NELFUND definitely is addressing access to education, and we are glad that Bola Tinubu has introduced that by setting up NELFUND, and it’s a very encouraging initiative,” he said.

“I’ve been the chairperson of that for the past five years, and it’s very successful today. So many universities have already been benefiting from that.”

NELFUND was established in 2024 after President Tinubu signed the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act into law. The Act provides interest-free loans to eligible students in tertiary institutions.

On July 4, 2026, the fund said it had disbursed over N303 billion in loans to 1,635,676 beneficiaries out of 1,800,489 applications received.

The meeting at the State House is expected to focus on the progress of the scheme and efforts to further expand access to higher education for Nigerian students.