Students Loan: NELFUND Reveals Why APC Members Children Cannot Be Favoured

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), Akintunde Sawyerr, has denied claims that the Federal Government’s student loan scheme favours children of All Progressives Congress (APC) members.

He explained that the loan application process focuses on individuals’ eligibility.

Naija News reports that the NELFUND boss spoke during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme.

He described the allegation as a “completely ridiculous idea”, arguing that the electronic application process makes it impossible for the organisation to determine or favour beneficiaries based on political affiliation.

He said, “I have not heard this allegation, but I can tell you that it’s a completely ridiculous idea that the administration of Bola Tinubu is focused on trying to fund people who support the party. We are talking about students; many of them are yet to vote, some of them are going to be voting for the first time, [and] many of them are not party members.

“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 loan application process was designed around objective eligibility criteria, adding that applicants must apply electronically and provide information such as their names and matriculation numbers

“It is a process you have to apply for this loan electronically. If you don’t have a name, you can’t apply for this loan. You provide your matriculation number; you have to be in a public institution,” he said.

The NELFUND MD added that the scheme’s system does not discriminate based on personal characteristics, religion or ethnicity.

“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.

“This is a system that doesn’t care whether you are of one tribe or the other. This system does not have a view or an opinion on whether you are a Christian, a Muslim, or an African traditional religionist; it doesn’t want to know,” he said.