The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has strongly denied claims by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) that ₦71.2 billion is missing from the federal government’s student loan disbursement. The NELFUND has labelled the allegations as misleading and damaging to public trust.
The controversy began when the ICPC revealed that only ₦28.8 billion out of ₦100 billion allocated for student loans had been disbursed, raising concerns about potential diversion of the remaining ₦71.2 billion. According to the ICPC, several university administrators were being investigated, and top government officials, including the Director-General of the Budget Office and NELFUND executives, had been invited for questioning.
However, NELFUND has responded, saying the student loan scheme currently managed by the agency has not lost or mismanaged any funds. In a statement by its Director of Strategic Communications, Oseyemi Oluwatuyi, NELFUND stressed that all student loan disbursements are fully automated, tracked, and paid directly to verified institutions or student accounts.
“There has been no missing student loan fund under the current NELFUND scheme,” Oluwatuyi stated, adding that the figures being circulated by ICPC were related to older education financing schemes, not the current student loan programme that launched in 2024.
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The “missing student loan fund” controversy, NELFUND says, is based on misinformation that wrongly associates unrelated past transactions with the current transparent, digital loan system.
Oluwatuyi further explained that NELFUND’s operations include zero human interface, making financial misconduct virtually impossible. “Every transaction is digitally tracked and verifiable. We have complied with all ICPC requests and remain committed to full transparency,” she said.
She described the situation as a deliberate attempt to discredit a new, people-focused initiative that aims to improve access to tertiary education and economic mobility.
The issue of a missing student loan fund has sparked national attention, especially as Nigeria struggles to improve funding for higher education. NELFUND has urged the public and the media to refrain from spreading unverified information that could undermine the credibility of the ongoing student loan scheme.
