NELFUND, YABATECH, LAUTECH deny allegations

More reactions are trailing The Guardian story on illegal deductions, double institutional fee collection by beneficiary institutions and attendant exploitation of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) student loan scheme.

However, while NELFUND and Yaba College of Education (YABATECH) reacted negatively to the story, the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL) condemned the alleged illegal deductions from student loans by 51 universities.
  
In a chat with The Guardian, yesterday, in Abuja, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Student Engagement, Sunday Asefon, condemned heads of tertiary institutions engaging in illegal deductions and double fee collections from students benefiting from NELFUND.
  
Asefon, a former president of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), disclosed that he would liaise with student bodies from universities, polytechnics and colleges of education and take up the matter with the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa.
  
The presidential aide called for the setting up of a monitoring committee made up of students that would monitor disbursements across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
 
 He stared: “I must condemn those vice-chancellors, who have received disbursements of Student Loan and failed to inform the students and went ahead to collect school fees from those students. Some even prevented students from writing exams after they had received disbursements from NELFUND.  
  
“As I speak to you, my office is meeting with student leaders across the country including NANS, National Association of University Students (NAUS), National Association of College of Education Students, National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS), and we are working towards meeting with the Minister of Education to have a monitoring committee across the six geopolitical zones.”
 
 According to him, this is to keep the students abreast of disbursements.  He expressed concern that heads of institutions, who were mostly beneficiaries of free education in their time, were the ones trying to frustrate President Bola Tinubu’s policy of student loans.

“We will soon be calling their names out, and any school found engaging in this kind of act, Nigerian students will not take it easy with the management.    YABATECH described the allegations as untrue, insisting that the amount purportedly paid to the college is under verification by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). 
  
Spokesperson for the school, Adams Adekunle, called on students to exercise patience, as payment would be made in due course.He said: “Accounting procedures and processes must be duly followed in every financial transaction; the amount purportedly paid to the College is under verification by the CBN.”
  
Also, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso (LAUTECH) equally said it was wrongly listed among the universities misappropriating the funds.
 Olalekan Fadeyi, the Deputy Registrar, Public and Alumni Relations, noted that of all the funds released, nothing is being held back by the University.
   
“The truth of the matter is that LAUTECH has only received three tranches of funds from NELFUND since inception and we make bold to state that the releases have been promptly disbursed to the approved beneficiaries who are verified students of LAUTECH. In fact, the university Management has gone further to ask bankers in charge of the fund not to add any extra charges while crediting accounts of the students”, he added. 
  
Meanwhile, NELFUND has insisted that it was ‘neither consulted for this report nor did it provide any data, comment or contribution to the publication’. A statement signed by NELFUND Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyerr, said the Fund dissociated itself from the article. 

IN a statement, yesterday, CACOL’s Director of Administration and Programmes, Tola Oresanwo, on behalf of the Chairman, Debo Adeniran, noted: “It was recently reported by a section of the media that no fewer than 51 institutions have been fingered in illegal deductions and attendant exploitation of the
NELFUND scheme. It was also reported that the errant institutions make between N3,500 and N30,000 off each student’s institutional fee submitted and received from NELFUND.”
  
According to him, the practice represents a gross violation of students’ rights and a blatant abuse of the Federal Government’s student loan scheme designed to support underprivileged scholars.
  
He stated that from the report, multiple institutions were allegedly deducting arbitrary and unexplained sums from loans disbursed to students, leaving many struggling to cover essential academic expenses.
  
CACOL added: “We demand a full investigation. Federal Ministry of Education, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) must urgently investigate these allegations and hold accountable any institution found culpable. Universities involved must publicly clarify the nature of these deductions and refund affected students without delay.  
  
“The government must implement stricter oversight mechanisms to prevent further exploitation of student loan beneficiaries by universities and their officials.”