For a politician who spent years representing Kogi State in Nigeria’s National Assembly, first in the House of Representatives and later in the Senate, Senator Dino Melaye’s recent comments on the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) have raised questions about how closely he has followed the education financing intervention benefiting students across his home state.
Melaye, a former member of the House of Representatives and former Senator representing Kogi West, has recently criticised NELFUND, focusing particularly on the ₦20,000 monthly upkeep payment to beneficiaries. He questioned how such an amount could cover students’ annual school fees and challenged the description of the programme as a student-fee intervention.
But the NELFUND figures from Kogi State present a substantially broader picture. Across eight tertiary institutions listed in the Kogi State disbursement data, NELFUND has disbursed a combined ₦8.205 billion to students, comprising ₦4.124 billion for institutional fees and another ₦4.082 billion in upkeep payments.
The figures cover 35,710 institutional-fee applications and 34,154 upkeep applications, demonstrating in concrete terms that the student loan scheme is not limited to the monthly upkeep allowance that has featured prominently in Melaye’s criticism.
At the Confluence University of Science and Technology, NELFUND disbursed ₦531.138 million for institutional fees benefiting 2,779 applications, alongside ₦274.1 million in upkeep payments to 2,681 applications. The total disbursement to the institution stands at ₦805.238 million.
At the Federal Polytechnic, Idah, the figures show ₦252.895 million in institutional-fee disbursements for 4,127 applications and ₦356.76 million in upkeep payments for 3,997 applications, bringing the total to ₦609.655 million.
The difference becomes even more striking at the Federal University, Lokoja, where NELFUND disbursed ₦1.767 billion for institutional fees covering 15,408 applications, while ₦1.810 billion went toward upkeep for 14,655 applications. The combined figure is approximately ₦3.577 billion.
At Kogi State University, Kabba, institutional-fee disbursements amounted to ₦654.877 million for 4,198 applications, while upkeep payments reached ₦573.76 million for 4,006 applications, producing a total of ₦1.229 billion.
Similarly, Prince Abubakar Audu University received ₦904.207 million for institutional fees covering 8,992 applications and ₦1.052 billion in upkeep payments covering 8,614 applications. Its combined NELFUND disbursement stood at approximately ₦1.956 billion.
The remaining institutions also recorded disbursements: Federal College of Education, Okene, received ₦8.867 million; Kogi State College of Education, Ankpa, received ₦10.354 million; while Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja, received approximately ₦9.378 million.
Taken together, the Kogi figures make one point particularly difficult to overlook: institutional fees and upkeep are two distinct components of the NELFUND intervention.
That distinction is not merely a claim by NANS. NELFUND’s own terms and conditions state that the loan amount consists of verified institutional fees and/or upkeep.
This means that presenting the ₦20,000 upkeep payment as though it represents the entirety of what NELFUND provides to a student leaves out the institutional-fee component entirely.
And this is where Melaye’s criticism deserves closer scrutiny. Melaye is not an outsider unfamiliar with the Nigerian education system or the political structure of Kogi State. He served in the House of Representatives representing the Kabba/Ijumu constituency before moving to the Senate, where he represented Kogi West from 2015. His National Assembly career therefore gave him considerable exposure to federal institutions, public policy and government programmes.
More importantly, the figures show that students in institutions across the state he once represented are actually receiving both components of NELFUND support.
The question, therefore, is not whether ₦20,000 is sufficient as upkeep. That is a legitimate subject for public debate, and Nigerians can reasonably question whether the allowance adequately meets students’ living expenses.
The more fundamental issue is whether it is accurate to discuss the ₦20,000 upkeep payment as though it represents the complete NELFUND intervention.
The Kogi figures answer that question with numbers. More than ₦4.123 billion has gone toward institutional fees across the eight listed institutions, while another ₦4.081 billion has been disbursed as upkeep. In other words, the institutional-fee component alone represents billions of naira in support to students and their institutions.
For someone who once represented a constituency in Kogi and subsequently represented the wider Kogi West Senatorial District, these figures raise an obvious question: How closely has Melaye followed the NELFUND intervention taking place among students in his own state?
The issue becomes even more relevant given Melaye’s current political role. In September 2026, the African Democratic Congress campaign council appointed him Deputy Director-General of its Contact and Mobilisation Directorate for the 2027 presidential campaign.
A politician occupying such a prominent national mobilisation role is expected to engage public policy debates with attention to the details, particularly when the subject concerns a programme directly affecting young Nigerians.
The Kogi data provides an opportunity to move the debate away from political rhetoric and toward verifiable facts.
NELFUND intervention in Kogi is not represented by a single ₦20,000 figure. The available disbursement data shows billions of naira going into institutional charges while billions more are being paid as upkeep to beneficiaries.
Therefore, while Melaye is entitled to question the adequacy, transparency, implementation or impact of NELFUND, such criticism should take into account the programme's actual structure and the documented disbursements to institutions in Kogi State.
For students in Kogi, the figures are not theoretical; they represent ₦8.205 billion in combined NELFUND disbursements across eight institutions, 35,710 institutional-fee applications and 34,154 upkeep applications.
Those numbers suggest that the NELFUND story in Kogi State is considerably larger than the ₦20,000 monthly upkeep payment that has become the centre of Melaye’s criticism.
If the former lawmaker wants to interrogate NELFUND, the most useful debate for Kogi students would be one that examines the complete figures: how much has been disbursed, how many students have benefited, what institutions have received, whether payments are timely, whether the upkeep amount is adequate and what improvements are required.
That would put the discussion where it belongs, on the actual performance and impact of the programme, rather than on a single component of a much broader student financing intervention.This version deliberately makes the ₦8.205bn Kogi figure and the ₦4.124bn institutional-fee component the central rebuttal, while leaving room to question whether ₦20,000 is adequate without conflating adequacy with the separate institutional-fee support.