ICPC Clears NELFund, Confirms No Irregularities In Student Loan Disbursement

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has clarified that it has found no irregularities in how the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFund) has distributed student loan money.

In a statement on Thursday, the ICPC spokesperson, Demola Bakare said the confusion came from a mistake in an earlier press release, where the word “not” was accidentally left out.

He explained that the omission made it sound like the agency had discovered discrepancies in the loan disbursements by NELFund.

Earlier in the day, the ICPC issued a statement titled “ICPC Launches Comprehensive Investigation into Discrepancies in Student Loan Disbursement”, which referenced a media report alleging that 51 universities and other tertiary institutions were involved in improper deductions under the NELFund scheme.

The initial release included a line saying that a “clear case of discrepancies” had been established, sparking widespread concern.

“The ICPC confirmed that a clear case of discrepancies has been established in the administration of the student loan scheme and announced that its investigation will now extend to beneficiary institutions and individual student recipients,” part of the earlier statement reads.

However, in the updated statement, Bakare explained that the missing “not” completely changed the meaning of that paragraph and contradicted the overall message of the document.

He clarified that, so far, the ICPC has only confirmed “established the total amount of funds received and disbursed so far by NELFUND,” adding that any suggestions of fraud or mismanagement are still unproven.

Bakare stressed that investigators still need to look into how the receiving institutions and individual students handled the funds. Only after that step, he said, can any valid conclusions be made.

“Unintentionally, the word “NOT” was missing in the second to the last paragraph of our earlier press release in respect of an ongoing investigation regarding Student Loan Scheme,” the statement reads.

“The missing word created an erroneous impression that the alleged discrepancies or diversion has been established.

“We admit that this is not the case, indeed we accept that the same part of the sentence also contradicted the whole paragraph.

“The impression of diversion and the issue of discrepancies do not exist at this stage; the investigation would have to move into the receiving institutions and persons before any reasonable deductions could be made.”

Meanwhile, NELFund has dismissed reports suggesting that it mismanaged or diverted money meant for student loans.