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No fraud uncovered in students’ education loan scheme — FG
The Federal Government has declared that there was no fraud uncovered in the student loan scheme.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, made this known at the end of a meeting held with vice chancellors of Nigerian universities, officials of the National Universities Commission (NUC), the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) and the Federal Ministry of Education.
Alausa also described the statement put up by the Independent and Corrupt Practices Commission and Other Related Offences (ICPC) as incorrect.
“Let me start by saying that there is no fraud in NELFUND. ICPC reported that the information was not correct. There is no fraud in NELFUND; what we have are issues that have to do with the timeline”.
It would be recalled that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission (ICPC) said it had launched a comprehensive investigation into alleged discrepancies surrounding the disbursement of student loans under NELFUND.
The commission said its preliminary findings revealed that while the Federal Government released N100 billion for the scheme, only N28.8 billion was disbursed to students, leaving N71.2billion unaccounted for.
Worried by the development, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANs) vowed to protest the alleged discrepancy.
The National Orientation Agency (NOA) also alleged that certain schools, conniving with some banks, delayed payments to students who qualified for loans so they could make money off the situation.
This followed a media report that alleged that some institutions made unauthorised deductions ranging from N3,500 to N30,000 from students’ fees received from the loan fund.
In a statement last week by the ICPC spokesperson, Demola Bakare, the commission stated that its Special Task Force immediately commenced investigations upon receiving the allegations.