NELFUND Denies Political Bias In Student Loan Scheme

Adenuga Toheeb Ayoola

The Managing Director of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), Akintunde Sawyerr, has denied allegations that the student loan scheme is politically biased.

During an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme, the NELFUND boss described the allegation as “completely ridiculous,” stating that the electronic loan application process was not designed to detect applicants’ political affiliations.

“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.

Sawyerr questioned how the Fund could determine students’ political affiliations, noting that many beneficiaries were either yet to vote or were preparing to vote for the first time.

“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.

The NELFUND boss explained that students applying for the loan are required to provide basic information, including their names and matriculation numbers, and must be enrolled in a public tertiary institution.

He further maintained that the system does not discriminate based on ethnicity, religion or gender, but rather assesses applicants based on their eligibility.

Meanwhile, NELFUND on Sunday described as “fake news” a circulating image claiming that President Bola Tinubu had announced life imprisonment for students who fail to repay their education loans after graduation.

The Fund administers interest-free loans to eligible Nigerian students in public tertiary institutions to cover institutional fees and provide monthly upkeep allowances.

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