The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has dismissed reports claiming that President Bola Tinubu approved life imprisonment for students who fail to repay their education loans after graduation.
NELFUND, in a statement posted on its verified X account on Sunday, described the claim as false and said the alleged announcement did not come from the government.
The agency also shared an image of the fake newspaper front page circulating online, which carried a headline claiming that Tinubu had declared: “All students who fail to repay their loan after graduation will go to jail for life.”
“There’s no life jail term for students who fail to repay loans. The speculation is fake,” NELFUND stated.
The agency noted that this was not the first time it had had to counter false information concerning the student loan scheme. It had previously debunked fabricated circulars and notices claiming that the loan disbursement programme had been suspended.
NELFUND was established under the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, which was signed into law by Tinubu and subsequently re-enacted in 2024.
The agency urged the public to disregard the circulating claim, stressing that there is no government-approved life imprisonment for students who default on their education loan repayments.
