Exhibit 31.3

    Certification Pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

    I, Terry J. Heimes, certify that:

    1. I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q of Nelnet, Inc. and
subsidiaries (the "Company");

    2. Based on my knowledge, this quarterly report does not contain any untrue
statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make
the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements
were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this quarterly
report;

    3. Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial
information included in this quarterly report, fairly present in all material
respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the
Company as of, and for, the periods presented in this quarterly report;

    4. The Company's other certifying officers and I are responsible for
establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in
Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) for the Company and have:

        (a) Designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such
disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to
ensure that material information relating to the Company, including its
consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities,
particularly during the period in which the quarterly report is being prepared;

        (b) Evaluated the effectiveness of the Company's disclosure controls and
procedures and presented in this quarterly report our conclusions about the
effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the
period covered by this quarterly report based on such evaluation; and

        (c) Disclosed in this report any change in the registrant's internal
control over financial reporting that occurred during the Company's most recent
fiscal quarter that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to
materially affect, the Company's internal control over financial reporting; and

    5. The Company's other certifying officers and I have disclosed, based on
our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to the
Company's auditors and the audit committee of the Company's board of directors
(or persons performing the equivalent function):

        (a) All significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design
or operation of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably
likely to adversely affect the Company's ability to record, process, summarize
and report financial information; and

        (b) Any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or
other employees who have a significant role in the registrant's internal control
over financial reporting.

Date: August 16, 2004           /s/ Terry J. Heimes
                                -----------------------------------------------
                                Terry J. Heimes
                                Chief Financial Officer