It is illegal for Nigerian tertiary institutions to collect tuition in dollar — NUC

The National Universities Commission (NUC) on Thursday reiterated its position that no tertiary institution in Nigeria is allowed to charge tuition fees in dollars.

The Acting Executive Secretary of NUC, Chris Maiyaki emphasised this at a media parley with education reporters in Abuja.

He was reacting to a statement by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) inviting proprietors of private universities and other institutions of higher learning in Nigeria charging fees in dollars.

Maiyaki said the commission had made an inquiry into the allegation and thus investigated but discovered that the said private university was not charging fees in dollars.

He noted that the institution only charged foreign students in dollars and not Nigerian students.

“On the dollarisation of tuition fees in this said university, we have investigated it and the university is not charging fees in dollars.

” They only charge dollars to foreign students. So, I want the media to join hands with us to tell the public that no Nigeria university is allowed to charge fees in dollars,” he said.

The executive secretary also said that the commission would continue to approve more universities as long as they are of standards and have the capacity for sustainability.

He disclosed  that the commission would issue licence to two universities by next week to add up to the already 270 existing in the country.

According to him, it would give room for access to tertiary education and stem the tide of Nigerians going outside the country to study.

“Due to the huge gap in demand and supply of university education, the National Universities Commission (NUC) will continue to give approval for the establishment of more varsities,” he said.

He added that the commission would continue to process applications for Distance Learning Centres (DLC) across the country to give room for education access.

On the financial realities of tertiary institutions, Maiyaki charged the institutions to think outside the box and established advancement offices for the internalisation of programmes.

He said this would encourage them to generate adequate revenue for the running of the institutions.