THE Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has declared that no fraud was uncovered in the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), otherwise known as students loan scheme.
Speaking on Wednesday, May 14, at the end of a meeting held with vice chancellors, officials of the National Universities Commission (NUC), NELFUND and the Federal Ministry of Education, Alausa described the statement by the Independent and Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) as incorrect.
The minister stated: “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.”
Recall that the ICPC recently said it had commenced a comprehensive investigation into alleged discrepancies surrounding the disbursement of student loans under the NELFUND.
The ICPC added that its preliminary findings indicated that while the Federal Government released N100billion for the scheme, only N28.8billion was disbursed to students, leaving N71.2b unaccounted for.
It later recanted, saying no cases of corruption or missing funds had been uncovered at NELFUND.
The National Orientation Agency (NOA) had alleged that certain schools, in connivance with some banks, delayed payments to students who qualified for loans in order to benefit from the situation, following media reports that some institutions made unauthorised deductions, ranging from N3,500 to N30,000, from students’ fees received from the loan fund.
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