The House of Representatives Committee on Student Loans, Scholarships and Higher Education Financing will hold its South West Zonal Sensitization Engagement on Thursday, May 21, 2026, at 10:00 AM at the T.I. Francis Auditorium, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State.
Prof. Adenike Temidayo Oladiji will be the Chief Host at the strategic meeting and Hon. Ifeoluwa Ehindero will attend as the Special Guest, as lawmakers gather stakeholders from tertiary institutions, student bodies and policy offices across the South West geopolitical zone.
The programme is explicitly designed to deepen public understanding of the Federal Government’s Student Loan Scheme and other education financing initiatives, and to press discussion on implementation, accessibility and impact of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund and related interventions. Officials say the event will bring together heads of tertiary institutions, students, education administrators and policymakers to exchange experience and surface recommendations.
Dr. Ayodeji Ologun described the gathering as an opportunity to convene education stakeholders across the South West so they can examine how the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) and other programmes are being implemented, how students access them and what effect they are having on affordability and inclusion. He added that the programme is meant to show the National Assembly’s commitment to ensuring no qualified Nigerian student is denied higher education because of cost.
Invited institutions include the Federal University of Technology, Akure; Federal College of Agriculture, Akure; Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo; Federal Polytechnic, Ile-Oluji; Adeyemi Federal University of Education; Adekunle Ajasin University; and Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology. Committee members say the engagement will provide an interactive platform for those institutions and other stakeholders to share experiences, raise concerns and contribute practical recommendations for the scheme’s rollout.
The event forms part of the committee’s legislative oversight and public engagement mandate and comes at a moment when actors outside the National Assembly are also weighing in. On Sunday the Student Wing of the Northern Youth Frontiers held an emergency joint congress in Abuja and issued a vote of confidence on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and NELFUND, saying more than 1.3 million Nigerian students had registered and applied through the NELFUND portal and describing the scheme as zero-interest with repayment deferred until after NYSC.
That public show of support sets up an immediate tension for Thursday’s meeting. If proponents say millions have already signed up, the committee’s drive to deepen awareness and press implementation suggests gaps remain—whether in outreach, verification, or in translating registrations into usable loans. The House has framed the engagement as a chance to test claims of uptake against the lived experience of university administrators, polytechnic registrars and student representatives in the South West.
Organizers say the South West Zonal Sensitization Engagement is not a lecture but an evidence-gathering exercise: officials expect to record where processes are working, where access is blocked and what changes institutions and students recommend. The committee’s stated aim is to turn those findings into oversight actions that clarify how the fund will be administered across varied campuses and student populations.
For Prof. Oladiji, the chief host, the meeting is both a practical briefing and a public accountability moment. She will preside over exchanges that the House Committee intends to fold into its oversight of NELFUND, and she expects stakeholders’ recommendations to chart the next steps for making the fund operational and truly accessible to qualified students in the region.
