NELFUND condemns tertiary institutions over poor service delivery, arbitrary fee hikes
By Uji A. Iliyasu Abuja
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has raised the alarm over the conduct of some tertiary institutions found to be withholding tuition refunds from students and arbitrarily inflating institutional charges, in what the Fund describes as unethical practices that undermine the objectives of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Student Loan Scheme.
In a statement signed by Oseyemi Oluwatuyi, Director of Strategic Communications at NELFUND, the Fund expressed concern over reports that certain higher institutions had delayed or outrightly refused to refund students whose tuition fees were paid before NELFUND disbursements were received, even as others were found to have imposed arbitrary increases on tuition and related charges.
NELFUND warned that the student loan scheme was conceived as a deliberate intervention by the Tinubu administration to dismantle financial barriers to higher education, not to serve as an opportunity for institutions to impose fresh burdens on already-vulnerable students.
The Fund disclosed that it has commenced engagement with the affected institutions and relevant regulatory authorities to compel the restitution of due refunds to eligible students and to ensure that all institutional charges remain fair, transparent, and aligned with the founding objectives of the Scheme.
NELFUND reaffirmed its unwavering commitment to the protection of student interests and to preserving the integrity of what it described as a landmark national intervention in Nigeria’s education financing landscape.
The development comes as the Federal Government continues to scale up the student loan scheme, which was designed to enable Nigerian students to access tertiary education without the immediate burden of tuition payment, with repayment structured to commence only after graduation and gainful employment.
Analysts and student advocacy groups have called on the Federal Ministry of Education and relevant regulatory bodies to move swiftly to sanction institutions found to be exploiting the scheme, cautioning that unchecked institutional misconduct risks eroding public confidence in one of the administration’s most prominent social investment initiatives.