NELFUND Boss Fires Back at Misappropriation Claims, Defends Loan Disbursements

The Managing Director of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), Akintunde Sawyerr, has dismissed allegations of financial misappropriation within the agency. Sawyerr said there was no evidence to support claims that the Fund had mismanaged its finances. He spoke during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday, while defending NELFUND’s funding model and disbursement process.

According to him, the student loan scheme requires substantial capital to meet the needs of beneficiaries. He explained that the Federal Government’s decision to redirect resources towards welfare programmes was linked to the establishment of NELFUND. Sawyerr said the policy followed the removal of subsidy by the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

NELFUND Requires Capital to Fund Student 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.

“The link is that the President, His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has removed subsidy on the one hand and is reassigning the funds that would ordinarily have gone to the top 1% of the 1% and pushing it into welfarist programs, of which NELFUND is one,” Sawyerr said.

The NELFUND boss argued that funding the scheme should not be confused with financial misappropriation. Rather, he said, money must first be made available before students can access loans. The scheme is designed to provide financial support to eligible students who may otherwise struggle to fund their education.

Meanwhile, concerns have continued to emerge over the transparency of NELFUND’s operations and the management of funds released under the scheme. Sawyerr, however, rejected the suggestion that the Fund’s financial activities were difficult to track. He maintained that its electronic payment system provides a clear trail for disbursements.

Sawyerr Defends NELFUND’s Disbursement Process

Sawyerr particularly pointed to payments made to institutions and students as evidence of the Fund’s transparency. He said NELFUND recently transferred more than N1 billion to the University of Ibadan. According to him, the money was sent directly to the institution, while upkeep payments were transferred directly to students.

“Again, concluding that 57% of people didn’t find it to the level of transparency that they would like, describing that as opaque, I think is a little bit extreme. But let’s go back and try to understand where we’re coming from with this.

“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?

“We transferred the funds directly to the institution and asked the institution to give the students access to classes. We’ve also paid upkeep to the students directly,” he said.

Furthermore, Sawyerr explained that NELFUND does not rely on cash payments for its disbursements. Instead, funds are transferred electronically to institutions or beneficiaries. He said the process makes it possible to trace the movement of money from its source to the final recipient.

“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.

“So, I’m struggling to understand where the lack of transparency is. It sounds a little bit like mischief to me. But again, I’d need to interrogate this research that was done,” he said.

Sawyerr’s comments come amid wider discussions about accountability within the student loan scheme. NELFUND has increasingly come under public scrutiny as its disbursements expand across Nigerian tertiary institutions. However, the Managing Director maintained that the electronic nature of the transactions provides a basis for tracking the movement of funds.

System Does Not Recognise Ethnicity, Connections

Sawyerr also addressed concerns about whether beneficiary selection under the scheme is fair and impartial. He said applications are submitted electronically, with the system relying on specific eligibility requirements. According to him, the process does not consider an applicant’s gender, ethnicity or personal connections.

“We receive applications electronically. The system doesn’t recognize whether you’re male, female, whether you’re Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Fulani, Ibibio, or Ogoja.

“As long as you have an NIN, it’s in your favor because it means you’re Nigerian. If you have a JAMB registration number, it means that you’re properly qualified to access the tertiary institution that we deal with,” Sawyerr said.

He explained that applicants must also provide relevant admission or registration details. In addition, beneficiaries are required to have bank accounts because NELFUND does not make cash payments. These requirements, he said, help the Fund process applications and make payments through its electronic system.

“If you’ve got a matriculation number or registration number, it means that you’ve been given admission. If you’ve got a bank account—because we don’t do cash, everything goes through the system—again, it means you qualify, and you’ve got admission in a proper institution,” he said.

The NELFUND boss further insisted that personal relationships cannot determine who benefits from the scheme. He said the system is designed to process applications without considering whether an applicant has links to senior officials of the agency.

“From our perspective, it’s completely agnostic as far as how people are chosen or concerned. It doesn’t care. The system doesn’t care whether you’re friends with the Managing Director or in-laws with the Executive Director. It doesn’t care,” Sawyerr added.

He therefore maintained that NELFUND’s application and payment processes are designed to minimise human interference. As the scheme expands, the agency is expected to continue facing questions about accountability, eligibility and the management of public funds. Sawyerr’s latest defence, however, centres on the Fund’s electronic systems and the traceability of its financial transactions.