Outrage and complaints have greeted the realisation that no tertiary institution in the South-East region of the country has benefited so far from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) disbursement to 27,667 students from 19 institutions nationwide.
This is even as NELFUND blamed the tertiary institutions in the South-East for not responding to its for verification.
Following the publication of the beneficiary institutions, which showed how much each got, an X user, Santiago Leo, with tweeting handle @Donaldsplendo, raised red flag over absent of institutions from the South- East region in the list.
He insisted that many students from the South East region of the country applied for the loan but like in every other thing in Nigeria, they were not considered.
Donaldsplendo tweeted, “Not surprised to see SE being neglected once again. No funds were allocated to students in UNIZIK, FUTO, MOUAU, and even the University of Nigeria (UNN). I’m pretty sure a lot of students in those schools applied for the loan just like every other Nigerian scholar One Nigeria una (sic).”
But reacting, NELFUND denied the charge of nepotism and marginalisation, noting that it made payments only to institutions that were eligible after they had responded to a verification list sent earlier to them.
According to the publication, a total of N2,946,927,155 of student loans was disbursed to 27,667 students from 19 institutions nationwide.
Defending the disbursement, the Federal government institution, tweeting as #NELFUND, wrote, “Thank you for your concern. It is important to clarify that geopolitical zones are not a factor in the disbursement process.
“NELFUND sent a verification list to every institution eligible for disbursement. Payments are being made to institutions that have responded to this verification.
“Unfortunately, we have not yet received any response from the institutions in the South-East. We urge these institutions to complete the verification process so that their students can benefit from the scheme.”
Meanwhile, in the various social media platforms in the South East, residents saw it as a deliberate ploy to exclude Igbo students from benefiting from the fund.
In one of the platforms, Mr. Ekeji Oforbuike, questioned where were the lawmakers from the South East region saying about the manifest and deliberate exclusion of the South East students from the loan using flimsy excuses.
He wrote: “Where’s our number 6 in Nigeria, Benjamin kalu? Do we still have people from the South East representing us in government? How come no institution in the South East is a beneficiary of this fund?”
See the NELFUND publication of the beneficiaries:
