NELFUND Boss Dismisses Claims of Political Bias in Student Loan Scheme

The Managing
Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, Akintunde Sawyerr, has dismissed allegations that the Federal Government’s student loan scheme is politically biased or designed to favour supporters of the ruling party.

Sawyerr described the allegation as “completely ridiculous,” insisting that the loan application system was structured to assess students based on established eligibility requirements rather than their political, religious or ethnic affiliations.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme on Sunday, the NELFUND boss explained that the application process was entirely electronic and required basic information such as a student’s name and matriculation number.

According to him, the system was not programmed to identify or determine the political affiliations of applicants.

“I have not heard this allegation, but I can tell you that it’s a completely ridiculous idea that the administration of Bola Tinubu is focused on trying to fund people who support the party,” Sawyerr said.

He noted that many of the beneficiaries were students who were either not yet eligible to vote or were preparing to vote for the first time, making it impractical to determine their political affiliations.

“How, in any event, do we determine who is a party member and who isn’t? Even if you are running a manual process, how do you do that? You can’t. It’s unlikely to yield you any result,” he said.

Sawyerr further explained that students must provide verifiable academic information, including their matriculation numbers, and must be enrolled in eligible public tertiary institutions before they can apply for the loans.

“It is a process you have to apply for this loan electronically. If you don’t have a name, you can’t apply for this loan. You provide your matriculation number; you have to be in a public institution,” he added.

The NELFUND chief also disclosed that demand for the student loan had been overwhelming, but maintained that the Fund operates a transparent system designed to determine eligible beneficiaries based on set criteria.

He said the scheme did not discriminate on the basis of gender, ethnicity or religion, stressing that the system was designed to focus solely on whether applicants were Nigerians and met the required conditions.

“We have a system that is focused on people who are Nigerians and meet the standard.

The system doesn’t recognise your gender. There is no bias in the system at the front end or the back end,” Sawyerr said.

He added that applicants’ religious or ethnic backgrounds were irrelevant to the processing of their applications.

“This is a system that doesn’t care whether you are of one tribe or the other. This system does not have a view or an opinion on whether you are a Christian, a Muslim, or an African traditional religionist; it doesn’t want to know,” he stated.

The clarification came on the same day NELFUND dismissed as fake news a circulating image claiming that President Bola Tinubu had approved life imprisonment for students who failed to repay their education loans after graduation.

NELFUND administers interest-free education loans to eligible Nigerian students enrolled in public tertiary institutions.

The scheme is designed to assist beneficiaries with institutional fees as well as provide monthly upkeep allowances, with repayment expected in accordance with the terms of the programme.

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