The Nigerian Education Loan Fund has put tertiary institutions on notice: refund students who were double-billed for fees — or face legal consequences. NELFUND Managing Director Akintunde Sawyerr issued the warning on Monday, June 29, escalating a long-running dispute with schools that have pocketed both student payments and NELFUND disbursements covering the same fees.
Key highlight:
- The Nigerian Education Loan Fund has warned tertiary institutions to refund students who paid fees already covered by NELFUND or risk legal consequences.
- NELFUND Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyerr, said investigations revealed that some institutions collected fees from students despite already receiving tuition payments from the Fund.
- The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission are investigating allegations of double payments and other irregularities involving some institutions.
- The controversy comes amid concerns raised by the National Association of Nigerian Students over delayed upkeep allowances for student loan beneficiaries nationwide.
- As of March 2026, NELFUND had reportedly disbursed over N206 billion to more than 1.16 million students across 270 public tertiary institutions, raising concerns that persistent payment issues could undermine confidence in the programme.
What Happened
Sawyerr disclosed that NELFUND’s own investigations have uncovered a troubling pattern: some institutions received tuition disbursements directly from the Fund into their accounts, then continued to demand and collect fees from the same students — without informing them that their fees had already been covered.
In a statement issued in Abuja, he described the conduct as both unethical and a breach of the principles underpinning the scheme.
The NELFUND boss added that the issue has already drawn the attention of Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies. The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have been questioning both the Fund and implicated institutions following petitions from affected students and media coverage of the malpractice.
“We’ve received multiple petitions from students who paid under duress, only to find their fees had also been paid by NELFUND. Institutions must refund this money. It’s disappointing that some schools have ignored this responsibility.” — Akintunde Sawyerr, NELFUND MD/CEO
Sawyerr urged schools that cannot refund students directly to return the funds to NELFUND, which would then ensure students receive what they are owed. He also reiterated that the Fund will not shield any institution found to be defrauding students.
Separately, concerns about withheld disbursement information have also resurfaced. Recent NELFUND findings revealed that some institutions, after receiving loan funds, failed to update students’ fee records or notify them — leaving students confused about whether their fees had been paid and, in some cases, threatening their ability to sit examinations.
Why It Matters
The crackdown comes against the backdrop of a mounting NELFUND crisis in mid-2026. The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) raised an alarm on June 20, warning that students’ monthly upkeep allowances had gone unpaid since approximately April 2026 — affecting hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries nationwide. NANS President Akinteye Afeez Babatunde described the situation as generating “widespread anxiety” among students and threatened a takeover of NELFUND’s head office if the delays were not resolved urgently.
As of March 2026, NELFUND had disbursed over N206 billion in student loans to more than 1.16 million beneficiaries across 270 institutions. Of this, N128.84 billion was paid directly to institutions for tuition, and N77.45 billion went directly to students as upkeep allowances. The scheme covers students in public universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, with private university students currently excluded.
The dual problem — institutions withholding refunds on one hand, and delayed upkeep payments on the other — risks undermining public confidence in a flagship Tinubu administration programme that has, in scale and reach, genuinely expanded access to higher education for millions of Nigerians who would otherwise be unable to afford it.
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What This Means for Nigerian Students
For students at affected institutions, the immediate steps are clear:
Check your school’s bursary or fee portal to confirm whether NELFUND has already paid your institutional fees for the current session.
If your fees show as paid by NELFUND but you also made a direct payment, formally report this to your institution’s NELFUND Desk Officer and request a refund.
If the institution is unresponsive, direct petitions can be submitted to NELFUND at nelf.gov.ng, or raised through NANS for collective pressure.
Students facing examination bans despite NELFUND payment should escalate immediately to NELFUND’s head office, as the Fund has committed to intervening directly in such cases.
The involvement of ICPC and EFCC is significant. What was previously a moral appeal — “please refund these students” — has now entered the territory of potential criminal liability for institutional officers who knowingly retained double payments. That shift in tone from NELFUND’s leadership signals that the patience of the Fund’s management with non-compliant schools is running out.
The Bottom Line
NELFUND has gone from appealing to threatening. With anti-graft agencies already at the door of erring institutions, schools that have retained student funds they were never entitled to keep are running out of time to do the right thing. For Nigerian students already grappling with delayed upkeep allowances and a high cost of living, this crackdown — if it produces actual refunds — cannot come soon enough.
