{"id":7656,"date":"2026-11-03T13:00:49","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T13:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/03\/kogi-varsity-defends-fee-hike-cites-nelfund-for-4032-students\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T13:00:49","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T13:00:49","slug":"kogi-varsity-defends-fee-hike-cites-nelfund-for-4032-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/03\/kogi-varsity-defends-fee-hike-cites-nelfund-for-4032-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Kogi varsity defends fee hike, cites NELFUND for 4,032 students"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kogi<\/p>\n

The vice-chancellor of Prince Abubakar Audu University (PAAU), Anyigba, Prof. Salisu Usman, says 4,032 students have been approved for loans under the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).<\/p>\n

Usman said this while defending the university\u2019s fee increase at an investigative hearing organised by the Kogi House of Assembly on Tuesday in Lokoja.<\/p>\n

The hearing followed a petition alleging arbitrary increases in fees by the managements of PAAU and Kogi State Polytechnic.<\/p>\n

The VC said the recent fee review was not arbitrary but part of a unified fee structure approved by the Kogi Government for its three state-owned universities.<\/p>\n

Usman said the review followed a government directive issued in 2024 to harmonise fees across state-owned tertiary institutions.<\/p>\n

He said that PAAU\u2019s charges were comparatively lower than those of similar institutions in neighbouring states.<\/p>\n

According to him, much of the controversy centred on medical programmes such as Medicine and Surgery (MBBS), Nursing and Medical Laboratory Science, which require huge investments, particularly during clinical training.<\/p>\n

The VC commended his predecessor, Prof. Marietu Tenuche, for reintroducing the medical programmes, which collapsed in 2012.<\/p>\n

He also lauded former Gov. Yahaya Bello for supporting stranded medical students and commended Gov. Ahmed Ododo for sustaining medical education in the state.<\/p>\n

Usman said that 4,032 students had been approved for NELFUND loans totalling N536.7 million to pay school fees, while another 600 applications were pending.<\/p>\n

He urged students to take advantage of the scheme, which also provided a N20,000 monthly upkeep allowance, with repayment commencing two years after graduation upon securing gainful employment.<\/p>\n

Earlier, the Commissioner for Education, Mr Wemi Jones, said the government followed due process in reviewing fees, considering economic realities and the interests of parents and students.<\/p>\n

Jones said the directive was issued to PAAU in 2024 but implemented inconsistently across departments, prompting full implementation to ensure compliance.<\/p>\n

He dismissed claims that Kogi State Polytechnic increased its fees, saying its rector had instead reduced accommodation charges by N5,000.<\/p>\n

The Chairman, House Committee on Education, Mr Idris Maikudi, said the Assembly mandated relevant committees to investigate the petition and compare the institutions\u2019 charges with those of neighbouring states.<\/p>\n

Mr Bode Ogunmola, representing Ogori-Magongo, called for sustained government support for medical education, lamenting that the only general hospital in his constituency had operated for years without a doctor due to personnel shortages.<\/p>\n

Mr Jibril Abu, representing Ajaokuta Constituency, expressed concern over the absence of the petitioners at the hearing.<\/p>\n

He commended President Bola Tinubu for introducing NELFUND to expand access to higher education. (NAN<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The post Kogi varsity defends fee hike, cites NELFUND for 4,032 students<\/a> appeared first on Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: <\/p>\n

Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The vice-chancellor of Prince Abubakar Audu University (PAAU), Anyigba, Prof. Salisu Usman, says 4,032 students have been approved for loans under the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND). Usman said this… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}