No federal university is allowed to charge tuition fees — FG
By ahmed Usman kanempress
16 august 2023
The Nigerian Government says that none of its federal university is allowed to charge tuition fees.
This is according to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mr David Adejo who said this at a public hearing by the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on student loans in Abuja on Tuesday.
Mr Adejo said that the recent increase in charges by federal universities was unfortunate.
“What they collect is charges to cover the cost of accommodation, ICT, and power, among others. It is the Governing Councils of the Universities that have the power to approve such charges for them,” Mr Adejo stated.
“The only university that increased charges after the signing of the student loans act is the University of Lagos,” he said.
“They came to the Ministry with a proposal to increase their charges because all Governing Councils were dissolved and we gave them approval,” Adejo explained.
“Immediately that was done, there was a resolution from the House stopping the increase in fees and the President also gave a directive stopping any increase in fees and that is where it is, even though several others have brought their proposal,” the Permanent Secretary said.
Adejo said that the charges collected by the institutions were used to pay for some of their services, including electricity bills.
He faulted claims that the signing of the Students’ loan act was responsible for some of the hike in the university charges.
Adejo said that asides the charges, the universities were unable to fix some of their expenses.
According to him modalities are in place for the take-off of the student loans scheme in the 2023/2024 academic calendar.
The Nigerian President Bola Tinubu had directed that all necessary works must be completed on the modalities for the take-off of the scheme to enable its take-off in September.
To this end the chairman of the committee, Teseer Ugbor said the student loan was part of the palliatives by the federal government to alleviate the suffering of citizens to ensure access to higher education.
Ugbor expressed concern over the disbursement process, the recovery of the funds from beneficiaries as well as the possibility of some students not being able to access the loan.
