Student loan centre contract moved to Nelnet after sale

The $480-million federal contract to run the National Student Loans Service Centre has changed hands, federal records show, moving to a new company after a sale rather than through a new competition.

Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) disclosed that its contract with D+H Corporation was transferred to “a new vendor ‘Nelnet’ following a sale agreement, effective February 2, 2026.” A new contract with Nelnet Diversified Services Canada, signed March 30, 2026, continues the work to March 31, 2028, at a total value of $480.25 million.

The service centre disburses student loans and grants and manages repayment and repayment assistance. The original contract was awarded through open bidding in 2016.

The filings also give two effective dates for the change of supplier: Oct. 10, 2025 in one record and Feb. 2, 2026 in others.

ESDC’s own filings flag that the contract’s “original value” was misstated and later corrected. All of them still show an original value of $7.91 million, while a 2019 filing reported the contract at $163.85 million.

Transferring a contract to the buyer of a supplier’s business is a normal mechanism, and the records do not suggest this one was improper. The sale itself is described here as ESDC’s filings describe it.

ESDC and Nelnet did not respond to questions sent Oct. 27 by the Nov. 2 deadline.

How we did this. Canada News Media read every ESDC filing for contracts G751420001 and G751460001 in the Government of Canada’s proactive disclosure of contracts over $10,000, downloaded Oct. 23, 2026.

Source: Proactive disclosure of contracts over $10,000.

With reporting by a Canada News Media contributor.

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