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Interest-free loans have reached 7,450 tertiary institution workers.
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Government is processing the remaining ₦1.7 billion from its initial funding.
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Recorded approvals exceed both loan offers and payments.
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Borrowers must repay through salary deductions after a one-year grace period.
October 6, (THEWILL) – Nigeria’s tertiary institution staff loan scheme has paid ₦13.3 billion to 7,450 beneficiaries, with another ₦1.7 billion undergoing institutional processing.
The figures, reported by Punch on October 6, come from a Federal Ministry of Education update on the Tertiary Institutions Staff Support Fund. They cover the programme’s first cycle, rather than payments made on October 6 alone.
The government transferred ₦15 billion to the Bank of Industry for the scheme. According to the ministry’s account quoted in the report, “The remaining balance is being processed through the institutional onboarding pipeline.”
Approval Comes Before Payment
Demand extends beyond the workers who have received money. The ministry recorded more than 42,000 applications, 28,987 approvals and 8,604 loan offers across 153 participating institutions.
Those figures describe different processing stages. They do not provide enough detail to establish how long individual applicants have waited or when every approved loan will be paid.
The ministry also acknowledged difficulties with institutional processing and disputed eligibility decisions. It said support had been provided to bursars to help resolve workflow problems.
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Interest-Free Still Means Repayable
For prospective borrowers, the attraction is access to a substantial loan without interest charges. However, the maximum amount is not an automatic entitlement.
A Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta notice explaining the scheme says eligible staff can borrow up to ₦10 million, depending on their net pay. It specifies a maximum five-year repayment period and a 12-month moratorium, with repayments collected through monthly salary deductions.
That grace period postpones deductions. Once repayment begins, borrowers will have less salary available for other expenses, making the amount borrowed and the eventual monthly deduction important considerations.
Existing applicants can check their progress through the Bank of Industry’s TISSF portal. A fresh application window has not been verified. The indexed application page carries a closure notice, so the disbursement update should not be treated as an invitation to submit new applications.
Joy Onuorah is a business journalist and brand communications specialist covering financial markets, artificial intelligence, digital economy, and the ideas reshaping business across Africa and the global market. Beyond her reporting for TheWill, Joy uses brand strategy, storytelling, copywriting, and high-value SEO to help brands build lasting market authority.
