The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have taken a fresh step towards strengthening Nigeria’s education financing system with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) focused on collaboration, transparency, accountability and effective resource management.
The agreement was signed during a high-level engagement on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, as both institutions explored practical areas of cooperation that could further strengthen NELFUND’s ability to deliver sustainable financing opportunities to Nigerian students.
Leading the NELFUND delegation was the Fund’s Managing Director/Chief Executive, Mr. Akintunde Sawyerr, alongside the Executive Director, Operations, Mr. Mustapha Iyal, and other senior management officials.
At the heart of the agreement is collaboration around funds recovered through EFCC activities, with discussions focusing on opportunities for such resources to support NELFUND’s education financing mandate, subject to applicable laws, regulations and established procedures.
But the new partnership goes beyond funding.
NELFUND and the EFCC also agreed to deepen institutional synergy, strengthen controls, improve processes and identify potential loopholes that could undermine effective resource management. The objective is to reinforce systems that promote transparency and accountability while ensuring that resources entrusted to NELFUND are managed efficiently..
For a Fund whose mandate is directly linked to expanding access to tertiary education, the partnership provides another avenue for strengthening the institutional architecture behind student financing and ensuring that its programmes are supported by robust accountability mechanisms.
Following the engagement, Sawyerr and Iyal participated in a brief interview at the EFCC Radio Station, where they discussed the significance of the meeting, the newly signed MoU and the importance of inter-agency collaboration in advancing NELFUND’s objectives.
The NELFUND delegation also included Dr. Zino Ugboma, Director, Human Resources; Hajiya Lami Suwaid, Director, Loan Allocation & Distribution; Ms. Oluwatosin Sanusi, Head, Investment & Fund Management; Mr. Tolutayo Olajolo, Head, Facility & Fleet Management; Mrs. Chekwube Okwara, Head, Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU); Mr. Akeem Lawal, Consultant to NELFUND on Anti-Corruption; Mrs. Tobechukwu Rapu-uneanya, Manager, Legal; and Mr. Daniel Adeniran, Assistant Manager, Strategic Communications..
The MoU marks a new chapter in cooperation between NELFUND and the EFCC, bringing together the institutions’ respective mandates in a bid to strengthen transparency, accountability and institutional safeguards around education financing.
While NELFUND continues to expand its student financing programmes, the Fund said the engagement reinforces its commitment to strategic partnerships and stronger systems for delivering sustainable education financing to Nigerian students.
