Student Loan: Federal Gov’t Reviews NELFund Operations In Varsities

The Federal Government has commenced a comprehensive review of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFund) operations across universities.

This followed allegations of fraud in the disbursement of the student loan which has elicited outrage across the country.

The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Alausa announced this while briefing journalists on Wednesday in Abuja, following a meeting with Vice Chancellors and the Managing Director of NELFund.

Alausa disclosed the formation of a multi-stakeholder committee comprising Vice Chancellors, the National Universities Commission (NUC), NELFund and the Ministry of Education.

The committee, he said, has been tasked with assessing existing processes and delivering new, standardised guidelines to improve the disbursement, communication, and management of NELFund student loans nationwide.

“We debated and discussed the processes that NELFund has in place, and the processes that our universities have put in place to receive money from NELFund. When they get this money, we also looked at how students are notified and how soon they get the funds after payment. The process seems to work well,” Alausa said.

He acknowledged that although the current system for fund disbursement and student notification was functional, it required refinement.

“We added several things and came up with clear guidelines. Some of the terms of reference of the committee include standardising the nomenclature of the various charges that universities are applying to students,” fees.

“The second term of reference we have assigned to the committee is to establish timelines for when NELFUND will disburse fees to universities.”

Alausa also emphasised that the goal is not to overhaul the existing system but to enhance it.

“The processes we have now are working, but we’re just working to make them better. The committee has three weeks to submit its report to me and the Ministry, and in the next four weeks, we’ll finalise new guidelines on how this entire process will work from NELFUND and from the universities. We’ll release those finalised guidelines to the universities and to the public.”

He further said the final recommendations would be shared publicly once the committee submits its report.