Adebayo Adenrele
The Managing Director of National Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), Akintunde Sawyerr has called on Institutions across the country to stop exploiting their students through the loan scheme.
Nelfund MD, who clarified that the body only pay directly into accounts of the Schools, said about 30 Institutions in the country failed to reimburse beneficiaries who have earlier made payment personally.
He described such action as double payment, urging the concerned Institutions to refund the school fee earlier paid by them.
The MD stated this while clarifying the alleged N4bn disbursement fraud.
His worss, “There is no disbursement from the NelFund account through the schools to the students. The Nel Fund money goes to the schools for their tuition or their institutional charges.
“The schools are supposed to give unfettered access to the students for classes. The schools do not disperse to the students except in the case where the student has already paid their fees, in which case there’s been a double payment. So the student has paid their fees. NelFund has paid their fees. There’s a double payment to the school.
“There should be a disbursement back, effectively a refund to the student. In certain cases, that hasn’t happened. The students are not receiving the refund. So NelFund has paid. They should get something back.
“There is an investigation going on because it’s very difficult for the students sometimes to come out and say that this is happening because they feel afraid that it might compromise their education.
“So there’s a very careful, meticulous investigation going on to try to understand where this is happening and how it’s happening. Some of the schools as a result of this have started making those refunds available, but it’s not acceptable. Students should not be exploited in this way”.
