Akintunde Sawyerr, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, announced plans on Wednesday to stop students from collecting loans while their parents continued to pay school fees. He spoke during a press briefing in Abuja.
Sawyerr stated that the fund had identified several cases of what he called double-dipping. He said many students took support from NELFUND yet still placed financial pressure on their parents for tuition.
“This comment is based on our recognition that there are so many students out there who are double-dipping. They are taking from NELFUND and still stressing their parents,” Sawyerr said. He added, “We are going to put an end to that.”
The managing director explained that NELFUND would introduce a system allowing parents to confirm whether their children’s school fees had been paid. The arrangement would not disclose the exact amount involved. He said the step aimed to improve transparency and give parents clearer information about fee payments.
In addition, the fund planned re-education workshops across the six geopolitical zones. These sessions would inform students, parents and tertiary institutions about changes to the payment process.
Mustapha Iyal, the Executive Director of NELFUND, noted that the fund had designed its payment platform to reduce intermediaries. The system uses students’ application identification numbers and wallet numbers rather than personal bank accounts. A pilot of a tokenised payment method also began to stop students from paying fees twice when they remained unaware of earlier disbursements.
