The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, on Wednesday firmly dismissed reports suggesting any fraudulent activities in the administration of the student loan initiative.
Dr. Alausa addressed the matter following a strategy meeting with university vice chancellors, officials from the National Universities Commission, the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), and representatives from the Federal Ministry of Education.
He took issue with a recent statement from the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), labelling the claims as unfounded.
“Let me clarify that there is absolutely no fraud in NELFUND,” Alausa asserted. “The concerns raised were simply related to delays in processing and not any form of financial misconduct. Even the ICPC has corrected its earlier statement.”
Earlier, the ICPC had announced the launch of a probe into alleged inconsistencies in how the student loan funds were distributed.
Their preliminary findings suggested that only N28.8 billion out of the N100 billion released by the Federal Government had reached the intended student beneficiaries, leaving a balance of N71.2 billion unaccounted for.
In response, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) expressed outrage and threatened to stage protests over the alleged shortfall in disbursement.
Additionally, the National Orientation Agency raised alarms about some tertiary institutions allegedly collaborating with banks to delay payments to eligible students for financial gain.
Some schools were also accused of making illegal deductions between N3,500 and N30,000 from student accounts.
ICPC spokesperson Demola Bakare confirmed last Thursday that a Special Task Force had been mobilised to investigate the allegations once they were reported.
