The Nigerian Education Loan Fund has launched an investigation into 34 tertiary institutions over allegations that they failed to refund students whose tuition fees were paid twice under the Federal Government’s student loan scheme.
The Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, disclosed this during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Sunday, saying the agency commenced the probe following numerous complaints and petitions from affected students.
According to Sawyerr, the investigation is being conducted in collaboration with anti-corruption agencies, the National Association of Nigerian Students, the agency’s internal auditors and other stakeholders to establish the extent of the alleged infractions and ensure that students receive their refunds.
“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,” he said.
He explained that the situation arose after President Bola Tinubu directed the immediate implementation of the student loan scheme during an ongoing academic session rather than waiting for the commencement of a new session.
As a result, many students had already paid their tuition fees before NELFUND later settled the same fees directly with their institutions, leading to double payments.
Sawyerr said institutions that received payments from both the students and NELFUND were responsible for refunding the affected students.
He noted that many beneficiaries urgently needed the refunds because they borrowed money from parents, relatives and other sources to pay their tuition before accessing the loan scheme.
While commending some institutions for promptly refunding affected students, he said others had delayed the process, adding that investigations were ongoing to determine whether the delays were deliberate or caused by administrative lapses.
To prevent a recurrence, Sawyerr disclosed that NELFUND was developing a token-based payment system that would enable students to authorise tuition payments directly at their institutions through their mobile phones.
He also explained that the agency pays tuition fees directly to institutions instead of students to prevent the diversion of education funds.
The NELFUND boss, however, admitted that the agency lacked the legal powers to compel institutions to issue refunds or prosecute offenders. He added that many aggrieved students had also submitted petitions to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission.
Sawyerr further revealed that NELFUND recently deployed a multi-agency team comprising officials of the EFCC, ICPC, NANS and the agency’s internal auditors to investigate one of the institutions accused of withholding students’ refunds.
He added that the agency had also refused to approve excessive tuition fee increases by some institutions, insisting it would not finance unjustified fee hikes while continuing efforts to improve transparency in the administration of the student loan scheme.
