LINCOLN, Neb., Aug 15, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- Nelnet (NYSE: NNI) announced today that the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) has approved the agreement submitted to the Department for Nelnet to begin participating in the Department's Loan Participation Program. The Loan Participation Program provides lenders, such as Nelnet, with short-term liquidity to make loans for the 2008-2009 academic year.

"We are ready to fund loans in the Loan Participation Program and anticipate that we will submit our first funding request as soon as today," said Jeff Noordhoek, Nelnet President. "Congress and the Department deserve credit for acting swiftly and diligently to provide a workable solution to ensure America's families have access to federal student loans this fall. In the spirit of this unprecedented action, we are committed to using the Department's program for its intended purpose by making loans to all eligible students at all schools for the upcoming academic year."

In April 2008, Congress passed the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008 to make certain the credit market crisis did not disrupt the availability of federal student loans. With its new authority, the Department developed the Loan Participation and Loan Purchase Programs so lenders could continue making loans in this difficult environment.

For more than 30 years, Nelnet has been helping students and families plan, prepare, and pay for their education. Additional information about Nelnet is available at http://www.nelnet.com.

Information contained or incorporated in this press release, other than historical information, may be considered forward looking in nature and is subject to various risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, estimated, or expected. Among the key factors that may have a direct bearing on the company's operating results, performance, or financial condition expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements are changes in terms of student loans and the educational credit marketplace, changes in the demand for educational financing or in financing preferences of educational institutions, students and their families, changes to, and the availability of, the Department's Loan Participation and Loan Purchase Programs, the continued availability of and capacity under Nelnet's credit facilities, and changes in the general interest rate environment and in the securitization markets for education loans.

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SOURCE Nelnet

http://www.nelnet.com

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