Real reason public universities might start charging N1m tuition fee – LASU ex-VC

Former Vice Chancellor of Lagos State University, Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, has said public universities in Nigeria may need to charge at least ₦1 million annually per student to achieve financial sustainability.

Olatunji-Bello, whose five-year tenure ended on Saturday, disclosed this in an interview with PUNCH Newspapers. She said inadequate funding remained a major challenge, noting that LASU’s internally generated revenue of about ₦13 billion annually was insufficient to cover its salary obligations.

“Our payroll right now is over N1 billion per month. All the N13 billion IGR does not cover our salaries,” she said.

According to Vanguard, the former vice chancellor said universities seeking financial independence would have to increase tuition significantly. “So, universities that want to attain self-sustainability will have to increase school fees into millions,” she said.

She added, “So, any public university that wants to sustain financial independence will have to charge school fees of not less than N1 million per student,” while noting that some secondary schools already charge more than ₦1 million per term.