Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, on Wednesday, May 14, said no fraud has been discovered in the disbursement of student loans under the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
Speaking after a meeting with Vice Chancellors, officials from the National Universities Commission (NUC), the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, and the Federal Ministry of Education, Alausa dismissed recent claims by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) as inaccurate.
“Let me start by saying that there is no fraud in NELFUND. ICPC reported that the information was not correct. There is no fraud in NELFUND; what we have are issues that have to do with the timeline,” Alausa said.
The ICPC had earlier announced it was investigating alleged discrepancies in the student loan scheme.
According to the commission, preliminary findings showed that out of the N100 billion released by the Federal Government for the programme, only N28.8 billion had been disbursed, leaving N71.2 billion unaccounted for.
In reaction, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) threatened to stage protests over the development.
Meanwhile, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) alleged that some institutions, in collusion with banks, had intentionally delayed payments to eligible students in order to profit from the process.
This came after reports claimed that some schools made unauthorised deductions from student loan funds, ranging between ₦3,500 and ₦30,000.
Last Thursday, ICPC spokesperson Demola Bakare confirmed that a special task force had been set up to investigate the allegations after they were received.
