NELFUND Disburses ₦1.08bn to 5,381 Nursing, Midwifery Students, Majority Women
More than 5,000 nursing and midwifery students have received ₦1.08 billion in education financing across three academic sessions, with young women making up the majority of beneficiaries.
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has disbursed ₦1.08 billion to 5,381 nursing and midwifery students across 21 federal and state-owned institutions, expanding financial support for students training for careers in healthcare, with young women making up the majority of beneficiaries.
The funding covered the 2023/2024, 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 academic sessions, with the amount disbursed increasing sharply from one session to the next.
NELFUND disbursed ₦59.4 million in 2023/2024, rising to ₦205.8 million in 2024/2025, before reaching ₦811.9 million in 2025/2026.
Overall, annual funding increased by more than thirteenfold between the first and third academic sessions, highlighting the rapid expansion of financial support available to students in the two professions.
The 5,381 beneficiaries are spread across 21 federal and state-owned institutions in different parts of Nigeria. This geographical spread means the intervention is reaching students across several parts of the country rather than being concentrated in a single institution or region.
For NELFUND Managing Director and Chief Executive, Akintunde Sawyerr, the funding represents more than financial assistance to individual students. He described the intervention as an investment in Nigeria’s future healthcare workforce.
A healthcare workforce under pressure
The funding comes amid ongoing concerns about Nigeria’s healthcare workforce and the country’s ability to train and retain enough professionals to meet demand.
Nigeria has experienced sustained migration of doctors, nurses and other health professionals seeking better pay, working conditions, career opportunities and professional development abroad. The movement has contributed to concerns about shortages within the country’s healthcare system, particularly as trained professionals leave faster than the system can replace them.
Nurses have been a significant part of this migration trend, with increasing numbers of Nigerian-trained nurses seeking opportunities outside the country.
Increasing access to nursing and midwifery education addresses a part of that problem by expanding the pool of students who can eventually enter the healthcare workforce.
The intervention has a particular significance for women because the majority of the 5,381 beneficiaries are young women, according to NELFUND.
Nursing and midwifery have historically attracted large numbers of women in Nigeria, making access to education financing an important issue for young women pursuing careers in healthcare.
For women who have secured admission but face difficulty meeting the cost of professional training, financial support can help remove one of the barriers to completing their qualifications.
That matters at a time when Nigeria needs to expand its healthcare workforce.
Helping more young women complete nursing and midwifery programmes means potentially increasing the number of qualified women available to work across hospitals, clinics, community health settings and other parts of the healthcare system.
It also has implications beyond the health sector.
For a young woman, completing a professional qualification can provide a route into formal employment, income and greater economic independence. Nursing and midwifery can offer opportunities to build careers, specialise, take on leadership positions or pursue further professional training.
But access to education does not automatically guarantee those outcomes.
The ability of women to build sustainable careers will also depend on working conditions, pay, opportunities for advancement and whether they can remain in the profession without being pushed out by economic or personal pressures.
However, access to education does not automatically translate into economic independence.
Women entering nursing and midwifery still face the broader challenges associated with building and sustaining careers, including pay, working conditions, professional advancement and the ability to remain in demanding healthcare roles over the long term.
