ABU increases fees

There has been a sharp increase in registration charges at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, ahead of the 2026/2027 academic session.

The ABU increase, which will see students pay between N143,000 and N298,000 depending on their programme and level of study, has heightened concerns that other public universities could follow suit, further increasing the financial burden on students and their families.

The new rates represent a significant increase from the N62,000 to N84,000 range paid during the previous academic session.

The Governing Council approved the revised charges at its 218th Special Meeting on September 29, following a resolution of the university Senate and consultations with stakeholders.

The increase is particularly steep for students in professional, medical and science-based programmes.

For instance, Medicine and Surgery students at 100 level will now pay N242,000, up from N82,000, while Dentistry has risen from N82,625 to N242,000.

Law students will pay N182,000, compared with N82,625 previously, while those studying Civil, Computer, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering will pay N172,000, up from N82,625.

Nursing Science has increased from N78,875 to N212,000, while Medical Laboratory Science and Medical Radiography will also attract N212,000 at 100 level.

Veterinary Medicine rose from N82,625 to N232,000, while Computer Science increased from N82,625 to N172,000.

Students in Accounting, Economics and Public Administration will now pay N152,000, compared with N75,125 previously.

The development has triggered reactions from students and the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), with concerns that the increases could make university education more difficult to afford for families already struggling with rising living costs.

Some ABU students took to social media to protest the increase.

Bisallah Abuhaneefah described the latest increase as excessive.

“Things are getting worse, this is the same ABU we recently paid N31,500 as tuition fee. The series of increments are not just surprising but outrageous. There’s no education for the common man anymore,” she said.

Another student, Gbadebo Adesiyan, who studies Medicine at ABU, criticised the timing and scale of the increase.

“Those who sit down and increased the tuition fees for a Federal university owned by the Government with a population of about 50,000 students, just two months before a general election, should be relieved of their duties. They are clearly sabotaging the Tinubu administration.

“With the level of hardship Nigerians are facing, how can you still increase school fees by about 300% just a few weeks before a presidential election?

“Nah! If I were President Tinubu, some people would definitely be losing their jobs tonight,” he said.

NANS President, Akinteye Babatunde Afeez, also rejected arbitrary increases in tuition and other institutional charges, saying the burden of financing public education should not be transferred to students.

Reacting to the ABU increase in a statement on Thursday, Afeez said NANS supported the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), but warned that the student loan scheme should not be regarded as a substitute for adequate government funding of public universities.

He noted that NELFUND was a loan scheme, not a grant, meaning beneficiaries would eventually have to repay the funds after graduation and securing employment.

“I support NELFUND. I have consistently supported NELFUND because I believe no Nigerian student should be denied access to tertiary education simply because his or her parents cannot immediately afford the cost of education.

“However, supporting NELFUND does not mean that NANS should outrightly support every increase in tuition fees. NELFUND is a loan scheme, and not a grant. Hence, students have to come back to repay whatever amount is obtained from NELFUND,” he said.

Afeez said the existence of NELFUND should not encourage tertiary institutions to continuously increase fees, stressing that there was a difference between determining who should fund universities and determining how much students should pay.

The ABU increase has revived memories of widespread fee increases by federal universities following the eight-month industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in 2022.

Several institutions reviewed their charges after the strike, citing rising costs of running universities, teaching materials, infrastructure and other operational expenses.

Although the increases triggered protests by students, many were not fully reversed.

Concerns over university financing have persisted, particularly following the Federal Government’s directive in May 2026 for public universities to fund lecturers’ allowances through internally generated revenue (IGR).

The directive has heightened concerns that universities could resort to increased charges to bridge funding gaps.

A former Vice-Chancellor of Lagos State University (LASU), Prof Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, had also argued that public universities might need to charge at least N1 million per student annually to achieve financial sustainability.

She said LASU’s monthly wage bill had exceeded N1 billion, while its annual IGR stood at about N13 billion, which she said was insufficient to cover salaries alone.

“Good quality education needs money,” she said, arguing that universities seeking financial independence would have to significantly increase their fees.

However, there are no indications that the ABU increase has been followed by similar decisions at some other federal universities contacted by Daily Trust.

BUK denies fee hike

The Bayero University Kano (BUK) said it had not increased tuition or other fees payable by its students.

The university’s Director of Information, Lamara Garba, said the institution was already in the second semester of the current academic session without any increase.

“The university is even in session. We are now in the second semester; we have not increased any tuition fee or any other fee in the university,” he said.

Garba urged students, parents and members of the public to disregard reports suggesting that the university had increased its fees.

UniAbuja says no plan to increase fees

Similarly, the University of Abuja, now known as Yakubu Gowon University, said it had no plans to increase tuition fees.

The Acting Director of Information and University Relations, Habib Yakoob, said, “As at this moment and to the best of my knowledge, there are no plans or intentions by the university to increase tuition fees.”

In Edo State, the University of Benin (UNIBEN) has also not increased its tuition fees for the new academic session.

A parent, Moses Felix, whose child studies Environmental Studies at the university, told Daily Trust that he paid the same amount as he did last year.

No directive to hike fees – Unijos

The Head of Information, University of Jos, Emmanuel Madugu, said the institution had not received any formal communication from the National Universities Commission (NUC) regarding a proposed tuition fee increase.

He also said the university had not received any informal communication on the matter.

Madugu noted that the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jos, Prof Tanko Ishaya, is the Chairman of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, arguing that any major policy on university fees would ordinarily be communicated to the committee.

“If there is anything of such, it should have been communicated to us already,” he said.

Madugu, however, said he would make further enquiries to establish whether there was any development on the issue and provide an update.

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