The Nigerian Education Loan Fund has warned that it will sanction tertiary institutions found culpable of fraudulent practices, including falsifying students’ records, colluding with students to access loans, or failing to refund overpaid funds.

This was contained in the latest operational guidelines of the student loan scheme, published on Tuesday.

Recall that some institutions had come under scrutiny over incidents of loan overpayments and failure to refund duplicate payments to the fund. The new guidelines set out strict consequences for such breaches.

According to the document, “An eligible tertiary institution shall refund any overpayment or duplicated payments made for any student. Institutions are to process and issue refunds within a maximum of 30 calendar days, or within such other period as may be determined by the board.

On sanctions, the fund stated that any institution will be suspended from receiving further disbursements if it contravenes the provisions of the Student Loan Act, 2024, or relevant sections of the guidelines.

The document added: “An institution shall be suspended if it engages in fraudulent activities related to institutional charges payment, such as falsifying student information or colluding with students to obtain loans for ineligible purposes, or if it fails to refund any overpayments or duplicate payments made for any student.”

NELFUND further noted that disbursements may also be suspended while allegations of misconduct or irregularities are under investigation.