Prof Hakeem Fawehinmi, the vice-chancellor of the University of Abuja, the dean of Students’ Affairs, Prof Simon Malang Kawe, and other senior officials of the school have been caught in a web of malfeasance involving the diversion of multibillion-naira funds from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund meant for indigent students, Peoples Gazette can report.
The Gazette’s investigation uncovered how hundreds of students
certified by NELFUND are being shortchanged and bludgeoned into finding
alternative means to pay their school fees due to the deliberate withholding of
loans already disbursed by NELFUND to the university management, whose senior
officials inject the funds into interest-yielding bank accounts, thereby
delaying disbursement of the loans to students.
The development has sparked a raging controversy that could
potentially draw the attention of federal authorities, The Gazette learnt.
In several cases, according to students and graduates of the university who were affected by the mismanagement of the NELFUND loan, the school management failed to reimburse residual balances to individuals whose school fees were lower than the actual amounts disbursed to the school on their behalf by NELFUND. But beneficiaries whose NELFUND disbursements were lower than their actual school fees had to fend for themselves, further distressing the students.
The university had 20,856 undergraduates in the previous
academic session (2024/2025), according to registered students’ statistics. A
figure that includes 9,664 males and 11,192 females, with an additional 6,310
students at the Institute of Education, and 2,802 students enrolled in the
Centre for Distance Learning and Continuing Education.
Since NELFUND launched on May 24, 2024, the scheme has
disbursed a total of N107,086,869,491 to 265 tertiary institutions to date, as
of February 9, 2026. Seven hundred and sixty-eight million out of the
N107,086,869,491 NELFUND loans were disbursed to UniAbuja for the 2023/2024,
2024/2025, and 2025/2026 academic sessions.
On January 29 this year, NELFUND disbursed N256,142,500 to
UniAbuja as institutional fee loans for 2,245 students whose applications were
approved by NELFUND for the 2025/2026 academic session. This is distinct from
the N20,000 upkeep allowance disbursed directly to the students’ personal registered
bank accounts.
Despite disbursing N256,142,500, the school’s management
refused to approve payments to beneficiaries. Rather, in an internal memo dated
February 7, 2026, UniAbuja’s management dragooned the students into finding
alternative means to pay their school fees.
“I write to inform all NELFUND beneficiaries who are yet to
pay their school fees to endeavour to pay and thereafter apply to the Bursar
through the Dean, Student Affairs, for reimbursement. For those who are already
on the scheme and have paid their school fees for 2025/2026 academic session,
they are advised to apply for reimbursement,” said the February 7 memo signed
by Mr Kawe.
The development threw many students off balance, as some told
The Gazette they had no alternative means of paying the tuition fee.
An insider who did not want to be named because he was not
authorised to speak to the media told The Gazette that NELFUND officials “were
miffed to learn that UniAbuja issued the February 7th memo to students,
insisting on their payments out of pocket, despite the fact that the school had
received N256,142,500.00 from NELFUND as of January 29”.
“Many of the students who were affected by the school
management’s refusal to approve the loans already disbursed to them by NELFUND,
planned to protest from Monday, February 9, because they see it as an
injustice,” said a student who did not want his identity disclosed for fear of
being victimised by the university.
Another student accused UniAbuja’s management of being in the
habit of “hoarding” such funds in “interest-yielding accounts”.
As discontent grew among the students, they threatened to
protest if they were not allowed to sit the exam.
Fearing a student protest, the university rescinded its
decision within 24 hours. In a follow-up memo dated February 8, 2026, Mr
Fawehinmi directed that the beneficiaries be allowed to sit the exam without
hindrance, pending payment of their fees from their disbursed loans.
“Due to the delay in the disbursement of the NELFUND loan to
the University (dated 29th January 2026), some beneficiary students were unable
to pay their school fees by the due date. The Vice-Chancellor has therefore
directed that these students be allowed to sit for their examinations without
hindrance, pending payment of their fees from their disbursed loan,” the memo
signed by Mr Kawe on behalf of Mr Fawehinmi stated.
The Gazette’s checks showed that UniAbuja’s management
officials rushed to release the memo on Sunday to salvage the situation after
some aggrieved students reported the matter to NELFUND leadership, triggering
an EFCC investigation.
“It was after the students reported to NELFUND leadership that
the VC and DSA scampered to issue the February 8 memo, while still pretending
not be in receipt of the fund,” a senior official privy to the development
said.
EFCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on
the matter.
On Monday, Mr Fawehinmi told The Gazette there was no attempt
to defraud the students.
“It is not a true story. It’s not correct. No management
member is syphoning NELFUND money. We’re not mismanaging NELFUND money at
UniAbuja. Although there might be some elements who may want to paint the
management of the university in a bad light,” the vice-chancellor claimed.
When asked about the discrepancies in some students’ actual
school fees and NELFUND’s disbursements, he said, “For those whose school fees
are lower than what NELFUND disbursed, we have always told them to write to the
school management for a refund of their balances. I have directed that their
balances be refunded to them.”
After assurances and several requests by The Gazette for a
copy of this directive, Mr Fawehinmi did not keep his word. Authorities said
they’re investigating the matter.
“NELFUND has always communicated with all these institutions
to ensure that they provide us with accurate information about the students.
We’re actually investigating some schools concerning alleged diversion and
mismanagement of the loans,” a senior NELFUND official who spoke on the
condition of anonymity told The Gazette on Monday. “However, whatever issue
arises in relation to NELFUND’s disbursements not being accurate with some
students’ school fees is the fault of the tertiary institution in question, and
not NELFUND, as the schools are 100 per cent responsible for verifying and
submitting the required information. NELFUND’s duty is to approve and disburse
accordingly.”
Mr Kawe confirmed to The Gazette that UniAbuja management
received the NELFUND disbursement for the 2025/2026 academic session on January
29, 2026. He said beneficiaries who had paid their school fees through
alternative means have been encouraged to formally apply for reimbursements.
“Immediately we got the NELFUND disbursement on January 29th
this year, we wrote to the Students Union, informing students who had earlier
paid their school fees to apply for reimbursement from their loans which were
disbursed to the school,” Mr Kawe said. “We have not mismanaged anyone’s money;
we have always refunded every student who applied for a refund of their
balances through my office. The NELFUND disbursement for the 2025/2026 academic
session just came in on January 29, 2026. Personally, I have signed several
reimbursement letters submitted to my office, and I currently have over 1,000
letters in my office that I’m attending to. They’ll definitely get their
refunds. If someone is supposed to apply through my office, but for example,
they applied directly through the bursar, you know there’s no way that would
work, as they didn’t apply through the proper channel.”
Several students told The Gazette that, despite submitting a
reimbursement application, the university did not budge.
“We applied for NELFUND in 2024, but we didn’t get it, and the
school management said it was being delayed by NELFUND. I already gave up. It
was around August/September 2025 that management informed us that NELFUND had
sent the money to the school; this was after we had paid our school fees. So we
had to write to the school management for reimbursement, since they said they
could not refund the money to NELFUND. But they’ll reimburse the school fees we
paid out of our own pockets and use NELFUND loans to cover our school fees.
“Since we submitted our reimbursement letters last September,
most people have not been reimbursed, and the few who were reimbursed got it
late after they had left the school and travelled. Some people have even left
the country, and they’ve still not gotten their reimbursements, while some
couldn’t even apply for reimbursements because they left school for the labour
market before the management directed that we should apply for reimbursements
many months after,” one of the aggrieved students told The Gazette.
Habib Yakoob, the university’s spokesperson, claimed that
those who had not yet been reimbursed might have applied for reimbursement
through the wrong channels.
“They may not have routed their letters through the office of
the Dean of Students Affairs, or might not have written or submitted letters at
all, because the school always treat the cases of those who apply for
reimbursement via the office of the DSA, and they always get their refunds,” Mr
Yakoob claimed.
Spokesperson for NELFUND, Oluwatuyi Oseyemi, confirmed that
UniAbuja had never reported or refunded excess disbursements to the scheme,
unlike some institutions that have reported and refunded such disbursements.
“We have never gotten any such report or refund from
UniAbuja,” stated Ms Oseyemi.
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