Student loan : NELFUND warns institutions against illegal charges, vows action

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has issued a stern warning to tertiary institutions over alleged violations of its student loan scheme, cautioning that any illegal charges imposed on students after disbursement of funds will be met with swift administrative and legal consequences.

Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, delivered the warning during a stakeholders’ meeting with Heads of Colleges of Education, Agriculture, Health, and Nursing held on Wednesday in Abuja.

Sawyerr stressed that the fund’s mandate is to cover all registration charges that grant students access to academic activities, and that any institution found to be double-charging students after receiving NELFUND payments will be held accountable.

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.”

Sawyerr revealed that NELFUND has already disbursed funds to 303 institutions on behalf of 293,000 students.

He added that the fund is actively collaborating with the National Orientation Agency and the Federal Ministry of Education to investigate reports of irregularities, with the aim of safeguarding President Bola Tinubu’s vision of expanding access to education from being undermined.