ICPC probes students’ loan scandal

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has launched an investigation into the management of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).

The probe followed an alarm raised two weeks ago by the Director-General (DG) of the National Orientation Agency, Lanre Issa-Onilu, that the universities were trying to sabotage the Tinubu-led government on the students’ loan scheme.

He said anti-corruption agencies in the country had been alerted to scrutinise activities of some tertiary institutions that were “colluding with banks to sabotage the student loan scheme”.

The development came after an earlier alarm raised by the NELFUND accusing some higher education institutions of withholding information about student loan disbursements from beneficiaries.

Akintunde Sawyerr, managing director of NELFUND, said they discovered that some institutions were failing to notify students when loan payments are made.

He added that these institutions were still demanding fee payments from the affected students, causing confusion.

Sawyerr described the practice as “unethical” and a “direct violation” of NELFUND’s principles and warned that legal action would be taken against any institution found to be engaging in such “deceptive practices”.

He called on all institutions to be transparent and work with the fund to ensure the loan scheme’s success.

In a follow up to NELFUND action, the NOA through its Deputy Director of Communications and Media, Paul Odenyi, said its investigation confirmed the development.

He said the action raised “serious concerns over transparency and accountability in the new student loan scheme”.

Quoting its DG, Mallam Issa-Onilu, NOA said the report was based on findings by Community Orientation and Mobilisation Officers (COMO) across the country.

In an interview on Arise Television, Issa-Onilu said the affected higher institutions were under the radar of anti-graft agencies.

“We also heard of some schools that charge some fees, processing or so-called fees, for the students to access the funds. Something that you played no role in.

“We see a lot of students complaining that it is only after they have made payment that they discover that NELFUND has paid for the tuition. And schools did not inform them.

“We had to relate to NELFUND, and we found out it was not news to NELFUND, and NELFUND was actually dealing with the issues already.

“As I speak, the anti-corruption agencies have been put on notice by NELFUND. Now, students can track from application to disbursement by themselves; schools cannot do that anymore.

“It is so sad that any institution would be involved in this kind of thing. It is like sabotaging the citizens; let’s not even talk about the government. It is about sabotaging ourselves,” he stated.

The scheme

It would be recalled that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu enacted an initial version of the student loan policy in June 2023 to grant interest-free loans to students.

The scheme was to commence in October 2023, but implementation was repeatedly deferred until a re-enactment in April 2024.

NELFUND opened the loan application portal in May 2024, at which time a pilot phase to serve federal tertiary institutions began.

Reports indicate that some students experienced delays in the disbursement of funds, even after being approved.

There have also been inconsistencies reported in the amounts disbursed compared to actual school fees, creating confusion about repayment obligations.

N71.2bn out of N100bn disbursed for students’ loan unaccounted for

In a statement on Thursday, the Director, Public Enlightenment and Education of the ICPC, Demola Bakare, said the commission had earlier investigated the alleged discrepancies surrounding the disbursement of student loans under the NELFUND.

According to him, the investigation followed a media report alleging that no fewer than 51 tertiary institutions were implicated in illegal deductions and exploitation in the scheme.

He said the institutions were alleged to have made unauthorised deductions ranging from N3,500 to N30,000 from each student’s fees received through the loan fund.

The ICPC spokesman said preliminary findings had revealed a significant gap in the financial records of the disbursement process of the fund.

He said only N28.8 billion was disbursed to students in various tertiary institutions instead of N100 billion released to the schools.

The anti-graft agency specifically said its preliminary investigations had uncovered that not less than N71.2bn had not been accounted for.

The spokesman of the commission said that key stakeholders, including the Director-General of the Budget Office and the Accountant-General of the Federation were invited.

Bakare also disclosed that senior officials from the Central Bank of Nigeria as well as the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of NELFUND were invited to provide documentation and explanations relevant to the case.

The ICPC spokesman said that those found culpable would be brought to book.

Bakare said, “The Commission confirmed that its Chairman’s Special Task Force immediately swung into action upon receiving the report.

“Letters of investigation and invitations were dispatched to key stakeholders, including the Director-General of the Budget Office, the Accountant General of the Federation, and senior officials from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“Additionally, the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of NELFUND were invited to provide documentation and explanations relevant to the case.

“Preliminary findings revealed a significant gap in the financial records of the disbursement process. While the federal government reportedly released N100 billion for the scheme, only N28.8 billion was disbursed to students, leaving an unaccounted sum of N71.2 billion.”

While giving the breakdown of the NELFUND’s records, Bakare said the ICPC’s strength of investigation revealed that the total money received by NELFUND as of March 19, 2024, was N203.8 billion.

“The breakdown showed that N10billion was an allocation from the Federation Allocation Account Committee, N50 billion was from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, N71.9B was from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, while another N71.9 billion was also from the same Tertiary Education Trust Fund,” the ICPC official said.

According to him, responses received by the commission were critically analysed, and interviews were conducted with the concerned individuals.

He said the commission would from time-to-time provide further updates as the investigation progresses.

He noted that the ICPC, however, found that the total amount disbursed to institutions from inception to date is about N44,200,933,649.00, while a total of 299 institutions have benefited from the funds released.

“The ICPC confirmed that a clear case of discrepancies has been established in the administration of the student loan scheme and announced that its investigation will now extend to beneficiary institutions and individual student recipients,” the agency added.

However, the spokesman of the commission in another statement released later yesterday, titled ‘Urgent Clarification and Admission of Error’ said, “Unintentionally, the word ‘not’ was missing in the second to the last paragraph of our earlier press release in respect of an ongoing investigation regarding Student Loan Scheme. The missing word created an erroneous impression that the alleged discrepancies or diversion has been established. We admit that this is not the case, in deed we accept that the same part of the sentence also contradicted the whole paragraph.

“The paragraph ought to read: The ICPC confirmed that a clear case of discrepancies has NOT been established in the administration of the student loan scheme and announced that its investigation will now extend to beneficiary institutions and individual student recipients.”

“….The general public is urged to exercise patience as thorough investigations require time and ample resources. However, persons with information of value are encouraged to reach out to the commission through info@icpc.gov.ng.

“The earlier error, though already corrected on our Website, is regretted. Our investigations are still ongoing, and there are no indictments yet!”

No funds unaccounted for – NELFUND

Shortly before the second statement issued by the ICPC, the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) said no funds had been mismanaged or stolen.

NELFUND said it was alarmed by what it called the recent surge of inaccurate, misleading, and dangerously speculative reports circulating in the public space regarding the administration of the student loan scheme.

“These reports, which suggest misappropriation and mismanagement of funds, are entirely false, grossly irresponsible, and deeply damaging to the integrity of an institution established to deliver financial hope to millions of Nigerians,” a statement released by the Director, Strategic Communications, Oseyemi Oluwatuyi read.

“Our commitment to transparency and cooperation with oversight agencies, including the ICPC, is total and unwavering. We have complied fully with every request for information and will continue to uphold the highest standards of public accountability,” it added.

Varsities positions

Meanwhile, while some of the beneficiary institutions on Thursday kept mute over the development, others denied the allegations.  

In Kano State, at least four institutions have been approved to benefit from the student loan programme. Two are federal institutions; Bayero University Kano and Yusuf Maitama Sule University of Education Kano (formerly Federal College of Education Kano), while two are state owned universities – Aliko Dangote University of Science and Technology Wudil and Northwest University Kano.

Efforts to hear from the two institutions proved abortive as they insisted that since their names were not mentioned, they would not respond to the allegations.

FUTA denies deductions

The Federal University of Technology (FUTA),  dismissed the allegations.

In a statement signed by FUTA spokesman Adebenro Adebanjo on Thursday and obtained by Daily Trust, the university said the students of the institution who got loans were paid in full what NELFUND sent to their portal.

According to the institution, no amount was deducted from the loan while the university fully refunded those who had paid in full.

“For the avoidance of doubt all students got the institutional fee, consisting of school fees, accommodation fee and acceptance fee depending on the year of students, paid to them by NELFUND in full and those who had paid their fees before their loans got through have either been fully refunded or are waiting to be fully refunded.

“There is no basis for refusing to refund money to concerned students. It is a process that is being done with utmost transparency. Everything is being done to ensure that there is no error in the process.

“To be sure, most of the students who benefited from the NELFUND have been able to use the NELFUND credit to pay their school fees for the 2024/2025 session,” the school said.

LASUSTECH debunks allegation as UNILAG, LASU keep mum

The Lagos State University of Science and Technology, LASUSTECH, dismissed the allegation, saying the funds allocated to the institution were sent to the students.

In an interview with Olanrewaju Kuye, the Public Relations Officer, Lagos State University of Science and Technology, LASUSTECH, he debunked the allegation of diversion, stressing that the institution’s management disbursed the money received to the students.

“My Vice Chancellor is a very thorough person. He does not joke with being accountable. There is nothing like diversion. We paid all the money to the students directly. We did not touch any,” he said.

When contacted, the spokesperson of the University of Lagos, (UNILAG), Mrs. Adejoke Alaga-Ibraheem, requested for time to reach the university’s Directorate of Students Affairs (DSA).

“I need to get a response from the DSA,” she said. By the time of filing this report, there was no feedback.

The co-coordinator, Centre of Information and Public Reactions, Lagos State University (LASU), Oluwayemisi Thomas- Onashile neither picked calls nor responded to text messages via Short Messages Services (SMS) and WhatsApp.

CHRICED, ActionAid want actions against those indicted

Speaking on the matter, Executive Director of the Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), Comrade Ibrahim Zikirullahi, said this scandal around the students loan administration is yet another sad narrative in the national polity.

“If you observe since APC government came into power in 2015, all of the social intervention programmes they introduced have been plagued with one form scandal or the other. This tells you of the level of commitment and sincerity of the APC government in meeting the need of ordinary Nigerians.

“How do you explain to the world that out of the sum of over N200 billion received by the agency managing the students loan scheme, only N40bn was disbursed. We call on the anti-graft agencies to carry out a thorough investigation into these observed discrepancies and anyone found culpable of mismanagement of these funds at any level must be made to face the full wrath of the law,” Zikirullahi said.

Also, the ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) expressed outraged over the development.

Mr Andrew Mamedu, the AAN Country Director, said the development is not merely administrative misconduct; but corruption at its core.

“These institutions have not only betrayed public trust but have actively undermined the very ideals of transparency, equity, and social justice that education should embody.

“Fee hikes ranging from N2,500 to N30,000 per student may seem trivial on paper, but when calculated across tens of thousands of students, this abuse snowballs into a multi-million-naira scandal.

“From AAN’s conversations with students, this is seemingly not an isolated incident. It is a coordinated, normalised pattern of corruption. This scandal is a brutal reminder that when institutions lose their soul, students become collateral damage.

“These are young Nigerians who turned to the government’s loan scheme out of desperation not convenience and what they got in return was exploitation,” Mamedu said.

He also demanded the immediate investigation and suspension of all institutional heads complicit in this matter. “We also call on the EFCC and ICPC to move beyond mere observation or investigation and take decisive legal action. One would have thought that paying institutions directly was the more efficient and secure route to minimise risks of student misuse and ensure timely tuition payments’’, he said.

By Idowu Isamotu, Chidimma C.  Okeke, Abbas Jimoh (Abuja), Sani Ibrahim Paki (Kano), Tosin Tope (Akure), Dotun Omisakin (Lagos) & Hope Abah (Makurdi)

DAILY TRUST.