ABUJA, Nigeria – The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has dismissed as completely false and malicious a viral social media publication alleging that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approved life imprisonment for tertiary institution graduates who fail to repay their student loans, the federal agency announced in Abuja on Sunday, September 6, 2026.
The intervention comes amid a coordinated disinformation campaign targeting the federal government’s flagship tertiary education financing programme, aimed at instilling panic among prospective applicants and existing student loan beneficiaries across public universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
Okay News reports that NELFUND issued a comprehensive public disclaimer across its verified digital platforms, releasing the fabricated digital graphic stamped with a bold red “FAKE” watermark to alert the public to the fraudulent document.
The doctored image, designed to mimic the front page of a leading national daily newspaper and anomalously dated Thursday, May 27, 2027, carried a provocative banner headline alleging that the President had decreed that all students unable to liquidate their loan obligations following graduation would be sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Fund warned that the circulating graphic was fabricated by unscrupulous elements seeking to undermine public confidence in the higher education financing framework, noting that similar false circulars had previously been concocted claiming the indefinite suspension of tuition disbursements.
NELFUND was formally established under the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, which was originally enacted and subsequently amended and signed into law by President Tinubu in 2024 to guarantee interest-free financing for eligible Nigerian students pursuing higher education in public institutions.
Under the statutory framework governing the scheme, the Fund disburses zero-interest facility packages that cover institutional tuition charges directly to beneficiary universities and provides monthly living stipends directly to students, without imposing punitive criminal sanctions on indebted beneficiaries.
The enabling legislation expressly stipulates that loan recovery does not commence immediately upon graduation, establishing that repayment obligations only become activated two years after a beneficiary concludes the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.
Furthermore, the statutory recovery process is tied strictly to employment and income generation, requiring employers in public and corporate sectors to deduct 10 percent from the beneficiary’s monthly salary at source for remittance to the Fund.
For self-employed beneficiaries, the regulatory guidelines mandate the remittance of 10 percent of verified monthly business profits, ensuring that repayments do not impose unsustainable financial hardship on emerging young entrepreneurs.
The Act also establishes legal safeguards for beneficiaries who encounter prolonged unemployment or lack verifiable income upon reaching the repayment window, empowering them to formally submit a sworn statutory affidavit to the NELFUND Board to secure official payment moratoriums and extensions until gainful employment is secured.
NELFUND reiterated its appeal to students, parents, and tertiary administrators to disregard unverified social media commentary, advising the public to cross-reference all policy announcements through the agency’s official website and authenticated institutional communication portals.
