The Federal Government on Wednesday denied reports of fraud in the student loan scheme.
DAILY POST reports that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission, ICPC, had announced plans to investigate alleged discrepancies surrounding the disbursement of student loans under the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
According to ICPC, preliminary investigations had revealed that while the government released N100 billion for the scheme, only N28.8 billion was disbursed to students, alleging that about N71.2 billion could not be accounted for.
The National Association of Nigerian Students had also vowed to embark on a nationwide protest over the alleged discrepancy.
Addressing the matter on Wednesday, the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa declared that there no fraud was uncovered in the student loan scheme.
The minister made the clarification at the end of a meeting held with Vice Chancellors, officials of the National Universities Commission, ELFUND and the Federal Ministry of Education.
He described the statement by the ICPC as incorrect.
“Let me start by saying that there is no fraud in NELFUND. ICPC reported that the information was not correct. There is no fraud in NELFUND; we have issues that have to do with the timeline,” he said.
