President Bola Tinubu has declared that every naira recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will be channelled into the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), insisting that no one can reverse the decision. 

He spoke on Friday at the launch of the Arise Palm Resort in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, during his visit to commission projects built by Governor Umo Eno and attend the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential rally.

Defending the student loan scheme, the President said it was designed to lift the burden of tuition fees from parents and widen access to tertiary education. He said that from now on, as the government fights corruption, any recovered corruption proceeds will go to NELFUND.

The pledge builds on a directive Tinubu gave in August, announced by Education Minister Tunji Alausa after a Federal Executive Council meeting. It covers liquid funds recovered by the anti-graft agency, as well as unclaimed dividends in the Capital Market Trust Fund and the Dormant Account Trust Fund. Alausa said then that seized properties and any funds still tied up in litigation would not be affected.

The Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, was tasked with working with the EFCC chairman to identify eligible funds and with reviewing the laws governing the two trust funds to determine how the money can be transferred lawfully.

The idea is not entirely new. In 2024, Tinubu ordered the release of N50 billion from EFCC-recovered proceeds of crime to NELFUND, an arrangement the EFCC said at the time was a presidential decision and not a donation from the commission. EFCC chairman Ola Olukoyede has since promised to ensure the funds are not re-looted.

NELFUND says it has processed more than 1.65 million applications and paid out about N372 billion across 319 tertiary institutions, according to figures cited by the APC presidential campaign council, which split the amount into about N193 billion for tuition and N180 billion for upkeep. The scheme has leaned heavily on other sources.

Official figures show it has drawn on large releases from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), which are reported to have passed N300 billion by October, alongside earlier EFCC recoveries. Some economists have cautioned that recovered funds can only be a stop-gap, since recoveries are irregular and cannot guarantee a permanent funding base for a scheme whose obligations keep growing.

Tinubu’s remarks came at a rally in a state where the governor has pledged two million votes for his re-election in the January 2027 presidential poll. Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri, speaking for the South-South governors, also praised NELFUND among the administration’s achievements.