Federal government’s student loan agency, Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), has launched investigations into about 34 tertiary institutions over allegations that they failed to refund students whose tuition fees were paid twice under the government’s student loan scheme.
Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, made this known during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Sunday.
The MD explained that the agency acted after receiving numerous complaints and petitions from affected students, remarking that investigations are being carried out in collaboration with anti-corruption agencies, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), internal auditors and other stakeholders to determine the extent of the alleged infractions and ensure students receive the refunds due to them.
“I can tell you that there are about 34 institutions that we are looking at at the moment because of the number of petitions we’ve received,” Sawyerr said.
He traced the genesis of the issue to President Bola Tinubu saying Tinubu directed the immediate rollout of the student loan scheme in the middle of an academic session rather than waiting for a new academic year when many students had already paid their tuition before NELFUND later settled the same fees directly with their institutions, leading to double payments.
“What happened is that a lot of schools got double payment—some from the students and some from us. The institutions that received the duplicate payments are responsible for refunding the students,” he said.
