The Federal Government has reiterated its stance that no federal university is allowed to charge tuition fees in the country.
This was disclosed by Mr David Adejo, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, at a public hearing by the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on student loans in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to Adejo, the recent hike in fees by federal universities in the country was unfortunate.
He said, “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.
“The only university that increased charges after the signing of the student loans act is the University of Lagos.
“They came to the Ministry with a proposal to increase their charges because all Governing Councils were dissolved and we gave them approval.
“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.”
Adejo added that the charges by the institutions were meant for the payment of other services such as electricity bills.
He disagreed with the speculation that the signing of the Students’ loan act was responsible for some of the hike in the university charges.
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Adejo said that despite the charges, the universities had not been able to meet up with some of their expenses.
He said that modalities had been put in place for the take-off of the student loans scheme in the 2023/2024 academic calendar.
Adejo said that President Bola Tinubu had given a directive that all necessary works must be completed on the modalities for the take-off of the scheme to enable its take-off in September.
On his part, 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 Nigerians and to ensure access to higher education by interested Nigerians.
He, however, 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.
He called for dialogue in the process of trying to amend the law to ensure that all Nigerian students interested in the loan benefitted from it.
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