Minister: No fraud found in student loan disbursement

 

Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has declared that there was no fraud uncovered in the student loan scheme.

Alausa stated this at the end of a meeting held with vice chancellors, officials of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) and Federal Ministry of Education, on Wednesday.

He also described the statement credited to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) as incorrect.

“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,” he said.

ICPC had recently disclosed that it had commenced a comprehensive investigation into alleged discrepancies surrounding the disbursement of student loan under (NELFUND).

The commission had said its preliminary findings revealed that while the Federal Government released N100 billion for the scheme, only N28.8 billion was disbursed to students, leaving N71.2b unaccounted for.

Worried by the development, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) vowed to protest the alleged discrepancy.

The National Orientation Agency (NOA) had also alleged that certain schools, conniving with some banks, delayed payments to students who qualified for loans so they could make money off the situation.

This followed a media report alleging that some institutions made unauthorised deductions ranging from N3,500 to N30,000 from students’ fees received from the loan fund.

In a statement last Thursday, ICPC spokesperson, Demola Bakare, said the commission’s Special Task Force commenced investigations upon receiving the allegations.