Chidimma Uchegbu
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has warned institutions against violating the terms and conditions of the fund’s payments on behalf of students.
While NELFUND lacks the statutory power to suspend, remove, or expel erring heads of institutions, it will report any traced illegality to the Minister of Education for administrative action.
NELFUND’s Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyerr, made this statement during a stakeholders’ meeting with Heads of Colleges of Education, Agriculture, Health, and Nursing in Abuja.
He emphasized that the fund’s commitment is to pay all registration charges that enable students to attend classes, lectures, tutorials, and exams.
Sawyerr noted that NELFUND has paid 303 institutions on behalf of 293,000 students. He warned that institutions demanding payment from students after receiving funds from NELFUND would face administrative action and potential criminal charges.
According to him, “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.
“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.
“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 already have paid.
“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.
“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.
The NELFUND MD assured that the fund is conducting investigations into alleged irregularities, alongside the National Orientation Agency and the Federal Ministry of Education. He emphasized that the goal is to protect President Bola Tinubu’s initiative to make education accessible to willing Nigerians from sabotage by selfish interests.
