Unilag VC says fee increment is late

By Blessing Alao

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos (Unilag), Folashade Ogunsola opines that universities in Nigeria have had to deal with the problem of producing quality graduates with insufficient resources.

This is following the protests against recent hike in school fees of federal universities.

While she attested that provisions have been made to make the payment easier, Ogunsola also revealed the institution spends over N1.7 billion annually on electricity bills.

At a virtual briefing on Saturday, September 9, the vice-chancellor claimed that even if the 35,000-student population of the university pays the new fee rate, it would only amount to about N800 million. This amount according to her, is not even enough to settle the electricity bill alone.

In further justification, Prof. Ogunsola said the school spends N5,000 to verify the results of each new student admitted, while N160 million is spent to conduct exams annually. To accredit new programmes or even maintain the accreditation of others, “we spend about N200 million every year”. All these expenses among others.

Professor Ogunsola, therefore said that increment is inescapable in the bid to “deliver quality education”.

Ogunsola added that ‘the error’ was that the increment should have been allowed all these years and it would have been gradual.