By Felix Khanoba
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has issued a stern warning to public tertiary institutions, cautioning them not to violate the guidelines tied to the disbursement of student loan funds.
Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday during the third day of a stakeholders’ engagement with heads of Colleges of Education, Agriculture, Health, and Nursing, NELFUND’s Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyerr, reiterated the Fund’s commitment to covering all registration-related costs that enable students’ access to lectures, tutorials, and examinations.
“The commitment of NELFUND is to pay all their registration charges. Our instruction is that once they have paid their institutional charges, they must have access, I repeat, they must have access to education, lectures, classes, tutorials and examination,” Sawyerr stated.
He expressed concern that some institutions may attempt to exploit the system, emphasizing that although NELFUND lacks the legal authority to discipline institutional heads, any wrongdoing would be escalated to the Minister of Education for appropriate action.
“We paid the whole amount, we don’t want the students to put their hands in their pockets and bring out money, and we do not want students to pay because the school told them they haven’t received any money when they already have,” he said. “That’s going to be a serious matter and will be attended to administratively. And if anything illegal is going on, they will be dealt with as criminal offences if schools are asking students to pay when we have already paid.”
Sawyerr clarified that payments made by students after institutions have already received funds from NELFUND could constitute criminal behavior.
“This is not an issue of refund. There are certain instances when we’ve made payments to schools after the students have actually paid because we started payment mid-cycle, but anybody who pays to the school after the school has received money from NELFUND is committing a crime,” he said.
While reiterating the Fund’s limited authority to impose sanctions, he emphasized that all discovered violations would be forwarded to the appropriate channels.
“We don’t have the power to sanction—we can’t suspend, remove or expel, but if we find anything, we have to take it to the minister and if it’s criminal in nature, we have to escalate it to the agencies that will ensure that economic crimes and practices are not being committed.
“We can’t also punish the students for refusing to pay for next session in the name of sanctioning the school. So we are threading with caution. Institutions that are erring are the ones that will face the music, and the minister is determined that this programme by President Bola Tinubu is not sabotaged by selfish interest.”
In response to public concerns over alleged misconduct by institutions, Sawyerr revealed that multiple investigations have been launched to address the issue.
“We are already conducting our own investigation. The NOA is conducting its own investigation, and the ministry of education through the honourable Minister is conducting a holistic investigation,” he said.
