The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen accountability, prevent financial crimes and improve controls around the management and disbursement of funds meant to support Nigerian students.
The EFCC Executive Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, urged NELFUND to ensure that funds approved by the Federal Government as student loans reach the intended beneficiaries directly, while strengthening mechanisms to prevent diversion.
Olukoyede spoke in Abuja on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, during the signing of the agreement at the EFCC’s corporate headquarters.
Under the agreement, the two institutions will establish a joint team known as the Fraud Assessment and Control Unit to assess risks, identify vulnerabilities and strengthen controls across NELFUND’s operations.
Olukoyede said the partnership should focus on preventing financial crimes rather than waiting until funds are stolen before taking action.
“There are certain things you might not have addressed your mind to, because that is what we do. We could give all your attention to it. We don’t have to necessarily wait for money to be stolen before we go into action. Why can’t we provide more prevention? Even if it doesn’t occur at the level of the organisation, across or along the chain, something could happen,” he said.
The EFCC chairman described NELFUND as one of the major legacy projects of the Bola Tinubu administration and commended its management for expanding access to education financing.
He said the EFCC’s responsibility extended beyond recovering proceeds of crime to ensuring that recovered funds were put to productive use for the benefit of Nigerians.
Olukoyede said the welfare of young Nigerians was one of the reasons the EFCC was interested in supporting NELFUND, noting that a significant proportion of people investigated for cybercrime were young people, including students in some cases.
“Whatever we recover from these proceeds of crime, why can’t we use it to also support them?” he asked.
He advised NELFUND to explore mechanisms for transferring funds directly to beneficiaries, subject to appropriate verification by their educational institutions.
According to him, universities and other institutions could help authenticate students’ identities and ensure that only genuine beneficiaries receive the funds.
“Let it go directly to the human beings,” Olukoyede said, stressing that the EFCC was particularly interested in ensuring that recovered proceeds ultimately benefited the people for whom they were intended.
He also urged NELFUND to access only funds legitimately due to it and ensure that such resources were deployed promptly for their intended purposes.
Olukoyede expressed confidence that the agreement would strengthen risk assessment, improve accountability and establish safeguards capable of protecting the programme beyond the tenure of the current leadership of both institutions.
Earlier, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyer, commended the EFCC for its support and emphasis on preventing financial crimes before they occur.
Sawyer disclosed that NELFUND had processed 1.6 million applications, with 960,000 loans approved. He added that the organisation had upgraded its systems and launched a new portal.
According to him, NELFUND’s application, approval and disbursement processes are conducted electronically, with funds transferred through formal banking channels without the use of cash.
He said student payments are made directly into their bank accounts, with identifiers including the National Identification Number (NIN), Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) registration details, matriculation numbers and Bank Verification Number (BVN) used for verification.
Sawyer said he had committed to ensuring that the organisation’s operations remained transparent and traceable through electronic records.
“We wanted to make sure that there are no gateways, no middlemen in between, down to the point where we don’t need anybody to approve you as top civil servant or top judge. We don’t want anybody in the middle of this process, and we made sure that anyone who applies for this loan does not need to know anybody at NELFA. Of course, they interact with us if they have difficulties, but they don’t need to know us at all. The bulk of the money goes to the institutions,” he said.
He said the system was designed to reduce opportunities for manipulation and ensure that applicants did not need personal connections within NELFUND to access the loan scheme.
Sawyer also stressed the need for institutional systems that would remain effective beyond the tenure of individual officials.
“It’s not personal. We need to ensure that this country can run and run and run without it being all because it’s this person or that person,” he said.
The NELFUND chief also appreciated the EFCC for its role in recovering funds used to support the organisation’s mandate, noting the risks involved in recovering proceeds of crime.
He said the MoU would further help ensure that recovered funds were not diverted after recovery but were ultimately deployed to support Nigerian students.
