The federal government has emphasised that federal universities cannot impose tuition fees on its students.
At a public hearing on student loans held by the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on Tuesday in Abuja, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education David Adejo made this statement.
Adejo referred to the country’s federal colleges’ recent rise in fees as regrettable.
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,” he 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 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.
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 call for dialogue in the process of trying to amend the law to ensure that all Nigerian students interested in the loan benefitted from it
