The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has asked the public and civil society organisations (CSOs) to feel free to scrutinise its activities whenever needed.

The managing director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, during a visit to the Transparency International (TI) office, assured that not a single kobo meant for students would go into private pockets.

A statement on the visit, signed by NELFUND media and public relations lead, Nasir Ayitogo, was made available to journalists on Friday in Abuja.

According to the statement, Mr Sawyerr said at the meeting that NELFUND, under his watch, would not deviate from its sole mandate of giving as many loans as possible to Nigerians in need of them.

Mr Sawyerr said that part of the fund’s objective is to reduce frustration and bad behaviours resulting from idleness among youths.

“For all these to become successes, we have to keep our books open and make sure no money goes missing.

“To make this happen, we call on Nigerians, particularly the CSOs, to checkmate our activities.

“We want to make sure we call those who can check our activities to prevent greed to please do so in the best interest of Nigerians,” he said.

In a remark, the executive director of operations at NELFUND, Mustapha Iyal, called for robust synergy between NELFUND and Transparency International, especially in terms of loan repayment.

He said that only when the loans were repaid would more students benefit in future.

Also, the executive director in charge of finance and administration, Fredrick Akinfala, disclosed that NELFUND would be signing an MoU with Transparency International.

The head of Transparency International in Nigeria, Auwal Rafsanjani, said the student loan would help eliminate all forms of criminality in the country.

He applauded President Bola Tinubu for coming up with such initiative while urging the National Assembly to give the Fund maximum legislative support.

(NAN)