The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), Akintunde Sawyerr, has dismissed allegations of financial misappropriation at the agency, insisting that its disbursement process is electronic and fully traceable.
Sawyerr said the agency had nothing to hide in the management and distribution of funds under the student loan scheme, noting that payments to institutions and beneficiaries were made through the banking system.
The NELFUND boss made the clarification on Monday during an interview with ARISE NEWS, following concerns over the transparency of the agency’s operations.
He said there was no evidence that funds under the scheme had been misappropriated, explaining that the government had to provide capital for students to access the loans.
“There is no evidence of any financial misappropriation by NELFUND. The reality of it is that in order for people to take a loan, there has to be some capital they can draw on,” Sawyerr said.
He linked the funding of NELFUND to the Federal Government’s decision to redirect resources following the removal of fuel subsidy towards welfare programmes.
Sawyerr also rejected suggestions that NELFUND’s financial operations were opaque, citing the recent disbursement of more than N1bn to the University of Ibadan as an example of how the system works.
He explained that institutional payments were made directly to the accounts of beneficiary schools, while students’ upkeep allowances were transferred directly to their personal bank accounts.
“The University of Ibadan students, before NELFUND, probably had a very high dropout rate because they just didn’t have access to capital to go to school.
“Now, the President introduced NELFUND; we paid, I believe, over a billion naira to the University of Ibadan recently. And those funds are transferred directly to the institution. So, where is the opacity in that?” he said.
Sawyerr said the electronic nature of the transactions meant that the movement of funds could be tracked from the Central Bank of Nigeria to institutions or individual beneficiaries.
“Now, in those two actions, the transfers of money are done electronically. It’s entirely traceable.
“The money leaves the Central Bank of Nigeria and goes either to the institution, the University of Ibadan, or in the case of upkeep, goes directly to the students in their bank accounts,” he said.
He described claims of a lack of transparency as potentially misleading, while adding that he would need to examine the research on which such claims were based.
“It sounds a little bit like mischief to me. But again, I’d need to interrogate this research that was done,” Sawyerr said.
System does not recognise ethnicity, connections
The NELFUND chief executive also defended the fairness of the student selection process, saying the application system was designed to eliminate personal connections and ethnic considerations.
He said applications were submitted electronically and assessed based on established eligibility requirements, including possession of a National Identification Number, JAMB registration details, admission and matriculation or registration numbers, as well as a bank account.
“We receive applications electronically. The system doesn’t recognise whether you’re male, female, whether you’re Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Fulani, Ibibio, or Ogoja,” he said.
Sawyerr stressed that applicants were not required to have personal connections to NELFUND officials to benefit from the scheme.
“From our perspective, it’s completely agnostic as far as how people are chosen or concerned. It doesn’t care whether you’re friends with the Managing Director or in-laws with the Executive Director. It doesn’t care,” he said.
