Lanre Issa-Onilu, the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), has announced that anti-corruption agencies are now tasked with monitoring certain tertiary institutions suspected of collaborating with banks to undermine the student loan scheme.
Gatekeepers News reports that on Monday, the NOA revealed through its community orientation and mobilisation officers (COMO) that several higher education institutions are allegedly conspiring with financial institutions to unfairly disadvantage students who are benefitting from the loan program.
In an interview on Arise Television on Tuesday, Issa-Onilu elaborated that these institutions are not only working with banks to secure tuition funds but are also imposing processing fees on applicants before they can be certified.
“We also heard of some schools that charge some fees, processing or so-called fees, for the students to access the funds. Something that you played no role in,” he said.
“We see a lot of students complaining that it is only after they have made payment that they discover that NELFUND has paid for the tuition. And schools did not inform them.
“We had to relate to NELFUND, and we found out it was not news to NELFUND, and NELFUND was actually dealing with the issues already.
“As I speak, the anti-corruption agencies have been put on notice by NELFUND. Now, students can track from application to disbursement by themselves; schools cannot do that anymore.
“It is so sad that any institution would be involved in this kind of thing. It is like sabotaging the citizens; let’s not even talk about the government. It is about sabotaging ourselves.”
