Government laptop loans for students in Nigeria: what exists in 2026

"Can I get a government loan for a laptop?" is one of the most common questions students ask when they search for laptop financing in Nigeria. The short answer is that, as of October 2026, there is no open, nationwide scheme a student can apply to and walk away with a laptop.

The longer answer is more useful. Several government programmes touch the problem. Some pay fees. One finances laptops, for a specific group. A few hand out devices to small, named sets of students. Knowing exactly what each one does saves you weeks of waiting on something that was never going to arrive.

This article goes through every federal and state scheme reported in 2025 and 2026, what each actually covers, who it reached, and what a student can do in the meantime.

NELFUND pays fees and upkeep, not devices

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund is the biggest student programme the country has ever run. By 29 September 2026 it had disbursed ₦372.62 billion, processed 1,659,853 applications, and counted 1,164,222 beneficiaries as of March 2026 (Daniel, 2026).

Every published breakdown of that money has two lines, and only two:

Neither line is a device. The upkeep allowance is ₦20,000 a month, a figure NELFUND confirmed in March 2026 when it rejected reports of an increase (News Agency of Nigeria, 2026). A student who saved every naira of it would need more than a year for a mid-range laptop, and most students need the upkeep for food and transport.

What NELFUND does do is free up money. If your fees are covered, the money your family would have spent on them can go elsewhere. That is the honest way to think about it: it is a fees loan that makes a laptop easier to afford, not a laptop loan.

CrediCorp's C.L.I.C.K.D.: the one real laptop scheme, and who it reached

In July 2026 the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation launched C.L.I.C.K.D., a credit scheme for laptops, with 3MTT as its launch partner. It set out to provide 1,000 locally assembled laptops, built by NASENI and Imose Technologies, with Fidelity Bank administering the credit. Seventy-seven people received devices at the launch (NM Partners, 2026).

Two details matter for students. First, who it is for: the scheme is described as open to working Nigerians, and the first phase was "exclusively available to fellows in the 3MTT and Learn2Earn cohorts" (CREDICORP, n.d.). Second, the terms: interest rate, repayment period and downpayment have not been announced (Ibemere, 2026). A second phase with more lenders and "broader access pathways" is promised, without a date.

CrediCorp's earlier device pilot, announced in December 2025, had put smartphones in the hands of just over 1,000 people and aimed to scale to 15,000 working Nigerians (ThisDay, 2025). The word "working" is the point. These schemes are built around a salary, which is exactly what an undergraduate does not have.

3MTT: free training, bring your own laptop

The 3 Million Technical Talent programme started in December 2023 with 30,000 fellows across all 36 states and the FCT, and its second phase plans cohorts of 60,000, 90,000 and 120,000 (NITDA, n.d.). More than 135,000 people have completed training across the first three cohorts (Balogun, 2026).

The training is free. The laptop is yours to find. At launch, the Ministry said it would "neither offer financial support nor provide fellows with laptops" (Ekhator, 2023). C.L.I.C.K.D. is the follow-through, and so far it covers 1,000 laptops against more than 135,000 graduates.

State hand-outs: real, but small and one-off

Governors and federal agencies do give laptops to students. Every case we could verify in 2025 and 2026 was a one-off, tied to a scholarship or a training programme, and closed to the general student population.

Sources, in order: Willie, 2026; Blessing, 2026; Musa, 2025; Omirin, 2025; Agbakwuru, 2025.

Add every row up and you get a few thousand laptops over two years. About 1.7 million people graduate from Nigerian tertiary institutions every year (Plan International Nigeria & ActionAid Nigeria, 2025). We also looked for a "one student, one laptop" scheme at any federal university in 2025 or 2026 and found none. Where states did buy computers for education, as Kwara and Enugu did in 2026, they bought desktops for schools, not laptops for students.

Bank education loans: built for salary earners

Banks advertise education loans, so it is worth reading who they are for. Access Bank's Advance for School Fees "offers affordable financing to salaried customers and business owners", lends up to ₦20 million for up to 12 months, pays the school directly, and asks salaried applicants for a recent salary bank statement and business owners for a guarantor form (Access Bank, n.d.). Sterling's education finance lends to the institutions themselves, not to students (Sterling Bank, n.d.).

None of this is a criticism. It is a description. These products are written for a parent with a salary, and a student with none does not fit the form.

The gap the schemes leave

A laptop that will last a degree needs an SSD of at least 256GB, 8GB of RAM and a recent Core i5 or Ryzen 5 class processor. In 2026 that puts the sensible range for students at ₦250,000 to ₦400,000, and new units from HP, Dell, Lenovo and ASUS mostly start above ₦350,000 (Emmanuel, 2026a; Emmanuel, 2026b). The national minimum wage has been ₦70,000 a month since July 2024 (Ezeja, 2024).

That is the gap. The schemes that exist are either not for devices, not for students, or not for more than a few hundred people at a time. For almost everyone, the laptop is still bought with family money, saved up over a long time, or paid for in instalments.

What a student can actually do

1. 1Apply for NELFUND if you qualify. It will not buy the laptop, but fees paid by the fund are fees your family no longer has to find.
2. 2Watch, but do not wait. Keep an eye on C.L.I.C.K.D.'s second phase and on your state scholarship board. Treat anything you get from them as a bonus, not a plan.
3. 3Price the laptop properly. 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and a recent processor is the floor for most courses. Below that you will buy twice.
4. 4Consider a refurbished unit from a seller that states the condition and the cover. A good refurbished business laptop often beats a new budget one at the same price.
5. 5If you need it now, spread the cost on terms you can read. Look for 0% interest, no guarantor, a written schedule, and an instalment you could still pay in a bad month.

How Pody approaches it

Pody is not a government scheme, and we are not a bank. We sell laptops, phones and tablets, and verified students at partner institutions can pay for them over time.

• No payslip, no guarantor, no credit history. We look at your enrolment, your academic standing and your record with us. See how the credit model works.
• 20% today, the rest over 1, 3, 6 or 9 months, up to 270 days, paid daily, weekly or monthly from your wallet. Work out a plan with the laptop financing calculator.
• 0% interest, no hidden fees, no markup. The total is the device price. A late payment fee may apply if you miss a date, and we say so before you agree.
• Genuine devices. New units come sealed from the makers and their authorised distributors, with the full warranty. Refurbished and pre-owned units list their condition and cover.
• A limit that grows as you repay, up to ₦1,000,000, set by your Pody Credit Score.

Government schemes may yet close this gap, and we would welcome it. Until they do, the question is not whether a student can get a laptop for free. It is whether they can get one on terms that do not punish them for being a student.

If you need a laptop for your course and no scheme covers you, see how Pody works.

Sources

• Access Bank. (n.d.). Advance for school fees. Access Bank Plc. Visit the page
• Agbakwuru, J. (2025, September 9). First Lady disburses ₦47m, laptops to 47 scholarship students. Vanguard. Read the article
• Balogun, F. (2026, January 20). FG launches impact challenge for 3MTT programme. BusinessDay. Read the article
• Blessing, O. (2026, August 25). Otti approves automatic jobs, ₦100,000 grants for top TechRise graduates. MSME Africa. Read the article
• Daniel, S. (2026, October 4). NELFUND student loan disbursements hit N372.62 billion. Nairametrics. Read the article
• Ekhator, O. (2023, December 8). 6 pressing questions about Bosun Tijani's 3MTT programme answered. Techpoint Africa. Read the article
• Emmanuel, L. (2026a, August 16). Best budget laptops for students and work in Nigeria 2026: What to buy and what to avoid. Naijasabi. Read the guide
• Emmanuel, L. (2026b, September 23). Best laptops for Nigerian students under ₦300,000 in 2026: New and tokunbo options. Naijasabi. Read the guide
• Ezeja, V. (2024, July 29). Tinubu signs N70,000 minimum wage bill into law. Prime Business Africa. Read the article
• Ibemere, D. (2026, July 22). 5 key requirements to qualify for FG's loan to buy phone, laptop. Legit.ng. Read the article
• Musa, I. (2025, October 4). Gov. Idris empowers 340 Kebbi students in India with laptops. Equity FM. Read the article
• National Information Technology Development Agency. (n.d.). 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT). Visit the site
• News Agency of Nigeria. (2026, March 31). NELFUND says students' upkeep allowance remains N20,000. Premium Times, via AllAfrica. Read the article
• Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation. (n.d.). C.L.I.C.K.D.: Credit for laptops, internet, connectivity and knowledge devices. CREDICORP. Visit the page
• NM Partners. (2026, July 22). CREDICORP launches C.L.I.C.K.D. scheme to finance laptops for 3MTT fellows. Nairametrics. Read the article
• Omirin, O. (2025, April 17). Yobe govt sponsors 127 students to law school. BusinessDay. Read the article
• Plan International Nigeria & ActionAid Nigeria. (2025). State of the Nigerian youth report 2025. Read the report
• Sterling Bank. (n.d.). Education finance. Visit the page
• ThisDay. (2025, December 4). FG launches new device credit programme to ease payment. Via AllAfrica. Read the article
• Tunji, T. (2025, May 12). CBN warns Nigerians against fake contracts, grants, loans. Nairametrics. Read the article
• Willie, B. (2026, February 2). PAP donates 900 laptops to students. Daily Trust, via AllAfrica. Read the article