NELFUND Moves to Block Unfair Fee Hikes, Compel Refunds For Students

Rita Enemuru, Reporting 

THE Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has launched urgent interventions to address troubling reports emerging from campuses across the country, including the unauthorised hiking of tuition fees and the refusal of some institutions to reimburse students who had already paid their charges before loan disbursements arrived.

The agency disclosed that it is now in direct talks with erring tertiary institutions and regulatory bodies to compel full reimbursements for students who settled their fees upfront, only to find loan funds later credited to their accounts. NELFUND is also pushing back against sudden, unapproved increases in tuition and other school levies that have been linked to the loan programme.

Launched under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Student Loan Scheme was designed to break down cost barriers to university, polytechnic, and college education, the Fund emphasised. It was never intended to pile more financial pressure on Nigerian learners.

To safeguard the programme’s purpose, NELFUND said it is working directly with affected schools and relevant authorities to ensure that every eligible student receives their money back promptly, and that all institutional fees remain reasonable, transparent, and aligned with the Scheme’s mandate.

In a press release signed by the Director of Strategic Communications, Oseyemi Oluwatuyi, NELFUND reaffirmed its pledge to defend student welfare and uphold the credibility of what it described as a landmark federal education intervention.

The Fund warned that institutions found to be contravening the scheme’s guidelines would face appropriate regulatory sanctions, though it stopped short of specifying what those measures might entail.

Stakeholders across the education sector have welcomed the move, with student bodies expressing cautious optimism that the intervention would check the excesses of some university administrators who have sought to exploit the loan programme for additional revenue.

NELFUND urged all beneficiaries who have experienced irregularities to report such cases through its official channels, assuring that every complaint would be investigated and addressed accordingly.