By Ajibola Olaide, JKNewsMedia Reporter
SHARP TUITION increases in several Nigerian tertiary institutions have triggered concerns from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, which reported that fees in some schools rose from N200,000 to as high as N2 million within a year.
The development was disclosed by the Fund’s Executive Director of Operations, Mustapha Iyal, during a media engagement in Abuja on Thursday.
Iyal explained that the Fund’s system, designed to monitor and verify institutional charges, flagged the sudden rise in fees.
Applications linked to the affected institutions were subsequently denied.
He noted that while the Fund is mandated to support students through loans, it cannot process disbursements that reflect unjustified or excessive increases.
According to him, the internal checks in place compare present charges with records from the previous academic year.
Once discrepancies are identified, the system immediately raises a red flag.
He said feedback from students also plays a critical role in validating the authenticity of institutional fees before approval is granted.
Providing an example, Iyal said the Fund had blocked applications just a day earlier after detecting suspicious fee adjustments.
He disclosed that some institutions had increased charges from N200,000 in the previous year to N2 million in the current academic cycle.
He stated that around 10 institutions were affected and their applications suspended as a result.
The Fund emphasised that such increases were not only excessive but also potentially damaging to the sustainability of the loan scheme. “We have a structure on how we confirm fees,”
Iyal explained. “We stopped some applications from going through because the charges had escalated far beyond what was recorded last year.
“Some had N200,000, but this year the same institutions presented N2 million. Our systems always check, and students also provide feedback to confirm whether institutional charges are high or low.”
He added that the agency has initiated engagement with the institutions to ascertain the reasons behind the sudden hikes.
“At the moment, we have about 10 institutions that we dropped their payments just because of that. Some have increased with N1 million, over N1 million.
“We don’t know why. But we are reaching out to them to know why they are doing such. Because the students cannot pay such in the future. This is a loan,” Iyal said.
The Fund warned that such steep increases, if unchecked, could place unsustainable financial strain on students and their families.
Iyal cautioned that the burden of repayment ultimately falls on students, and sudden fee inflation undermines the very purpose of the loan scheme.
He stressed that the Fund would continue to apply rigorous checks to prevent irregularities and ensure fairness across institutions.
According to the agency, student loans are structured to provide equitable access to higher education, and safeguarding the scheme from abuse remains central to its operations.
