The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has said there is no fraud in the Nigerian Education Loan Fund.
He made this statement on Wednesday, May 14, after a meeting in Abuja with Vice Chancellors, officials of the National Universities Commission, NELFUND, and the Federal Ministry of Education.
Alausa said, “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.”
His response came after the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) said it had started an investigation into alleged problems with how the student loan money was shared.
According to the ICPC, the Federal Government released N100 billion for the scheme, but only N28.8 billion was given to students. This means N71.2 billion was still not accounted for, leading to concerns.
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) said it was ready to protest over the issue. They said the money was meant to help students and must be used properly.
The National Orientation Agency also said that some schools were working with banks to delay student payments so they could profit from it. A media report also claimed that some schools took between N3,500 and N30,000 from students’ loan funds without permission.
Last Thursday, the ICPC spokesperson, Demola Bakare, confirmed that a Special Task Force had started looking into these reports.
Despite the concerns, Dr. Alausa insisted that no fraud was found. He explained that the issue was more about delays and timing, not missing funds or corruption.
