Dare Babalola
The University of Lagos (UNILAG) has clarified that it has not increased student fees, attributing recent changes to directives from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFund).
UNILAG students sounded the alarm on Tuesday after noticing changes to the fees on their portal, sparking concerns of a hike.
However, in a statement on Wednesday, Adejoke Alaga-Ibraheem, the head of UNILAG’s communication unit, explained that the fee change resulted from integrating approved dues previously paid by students at faculty and departmental levels.
She stated that this is in compliance with the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFund) directive to institutions to consolidate all student charges on the student portal.
“This ensures that once students make payment through their official portal, no other payment will be collected at the faculty and departmental levels,” she said.
Although there was no major fee hike, some charges were adjusted upwards and new ones were introduced, according to the university.
In the 2024/2025 academic session, returning students paid N2000 for department and faculty dues, but this has been increased on the portal’s consolidated quote up to N15,000.
A breakdown of the increase shows that the UNILAG TISHIP moved from N5,000 to N7,500.
The new charges introduced include entrepreneurship (N5000), portal maintenance (N15,000), and student insurance policy (N1,250).
Others are student support services (N1,250), professional services (N7,500), and general studies (GST) (N5,000).
