By Tochukwu Bliss, Abuja
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has declared that its books and operations are open to public scrutiny.
The Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, was said to have made the declaration during a visit to the Transparency International (TI) office and assured that funds meant for students would be diverted to private pockets.
A statement signed by NELFUND spokesperson, Nasir Ayitogo, on Friday in Abuja, quoted Mr Sawyerr as saying: “For all these to become successes, we have to keep our books open and make sure no money goes missing. To make this happen, we call on Nigerians, particularly the CSOs, to checkmate our activities.
“We want to make sure we call those who can check our activities to prevent greed to please do so in the best interest of Nigerians.”
He said that under his watch, the Fund will stick to its sole mandate of giving as many loans as possible to Nigerians in need of them, adding that the objective is to reduce as much as possible, frustration and bad behaviours resulting from idleness among youths.
Also, commenting, the Executive Director, Operations at NELFUND, Mustapha Iyal, called for robust synergy between NELFUND and Transparency International, especially in terms of loan repayment.
He said that only when the loans were repaid would more students benefit in future.
Also, the executive director in charge of finance and administration, Fredrick Akinfala, disclosed that NELFUND would be signing an MoU with Transparency International.
The Head of Transparency International in Nigeria, Auwal Rafsanjani, said the student loan would help eliminate all forms of criminality in the country.
He applauded President Bola Tinubu for coming up with such an initiative while urging the National Assembly to give the Fund maximum legislative support.
For all these to become successes, we have to keep our books open and make sure no money goes missing. To make this happen, we call on Nigerians, particularly the CSOs, to checkmate our activities.
Verify site legitimacy
Meanwhile, NELFUND has warned students to be cautious and verify the legitimacy of any website or service claiming to represent it.
The warning comes on the heels of a fake newspaper advertisement on the operations of the student loan.
In a statement on Friday, it said: “NELFUND management has become aware of a fraudulent advertisement in the Punch newspaper about a ‘Federal Study Loan’.
“The fraudsters operating the website www.fedstudyloan-gov.ng have advertised an application for the highly anticipated student loan programme of the federal government.
“NELFUND wishes to clarify that it has no association with this website and strongly condemns any attempts to deceive students seeking financial aid.
“NELFUND takes the security and well-being of our students very seriously and is committed to providing accurate information and resources for financing their education.”
It went further to encourage anyone affected by the scam to report it immediately to the relevant authorities, adding that the official channel for student loan applications, which would be opened to the public in due course, is www.nelf.gov.ng.
NELFUND said about 1.2 million Nigerian students in tertiary institutions and government-recognised skill acquisition centres will be among the first batch of beneficiaries.
