By Charles Olewezi
President Bola Tinubu’s recent directive routing cleared Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recovered loot and unclaimed dividends to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has drawn mixed reactions. Proponents praise it as a creative anti-corruption measure that expands education access, while critics warn it bypasses budgetary oversight and raises transparency concerns.
Tinubu had, on Wednesday, during the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, directed that all funds recovered by the EFCC be channelled to NELFUND.
Tunji Alausa, Minister of Education, who briefed the State House press shortly after the meeting, said FEC also approved that all other unclaimed dividends in the Capital Market Trust Fund and Dormant Account Trust Fund be channelled to the student loan scheme in a bid to expand the reach of the fund, and strengthen its efficiency.
“The President, in his benevolence, has now directed that all funds recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission be diverted to NELFUND to continue to support its funding.
“This was also approved by FEC: that all unclaimed dividends from the Capital Market Trust Fund and the Dormant Account Trust Fund should also be directed to NELFUND, so that NELFUND will be financially buoyant to meet its growing obligations today,” Alausa said.
Many parents and students across the country hailed the directive as a bold move to make higher education more accessible to the less advantaged citizens. One of the parents, Mr Lanre Jacob, whose son is a student of the Federal University, Lokoja, thanked Tinubu for the scheme and the recent directive to use recovered loot by EFCC to support the scheme.
“Early this month, my son received N40,000 as two months upkeep from NELFUND. It was a great relief when he broke the news to me. Before then, he used to call me almost every week for money. But when he got that NELFUND upkeep, he stopped calling me,” Jacob said.
Ahmed Sanni, a 300 level student of the Federal University of Technology, Minna said he was highly elated by the President’s directive as this will make more funds available to the students.
However, Fiscal policy analysts and legal critics cautioned the President not to give orders on budgetary matters without following due process.
A legal expert, Mr Festus Okoli, expressed worry that directing recovered funds via presidential decree rather than structured budgetary appropriation undermines legislative financial checks and balances.
He said, “There has been this argument whether cash movements from anti-graft recoveries properly adhere to legal remittance protocols before deployment. So, the President must be careful when making pronouncements because we have not recovered from the ‘subsidy is gone’ statement he made on the day of his inauguration”.
A financial analyst, who pleaded anonymity, cautioned that funding a revolving credit scheme (student loans) with volatile, one-off crime recoveries—coupled with high graduate unemployment—risks creating structural funding gaps if loan repayment rates remain low.
NELFUND was established in 2024 after Tinubu signed the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act into law to provide interest-free loans to eligible students in tertiary institutions.
As of August 8, 2026, the fund said it had paid out over N322 billion for institutional fees and upkeep allowances to over 1.6 million students.