The House of Representatives on Wednesday called on the Federal Ministry of education to abolish the practice of charging Acceptance Fees on admission into Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria

This resolution followed the consideration and adoption of a motion calling attention to the exploitative tendencies if the practice, as brought by Hon. Chinedu Emeka Martins.

The resolution therefore directed the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission to immediately abolish the payment of acceptance fees into Tertiary Institutions.

To this end, the House Committee on Tertiary Education and Services was mandated to investigate the admission policies and practices of Tertiary Institutions in the country as they relate to the charging of acceptance fees in order to remove all obstacles to accessing tertiary education in the country.

In his lead debate, Hon. Martins noted that education is a necessary tool for unlocking human potentials and driving national development and the advancement or otherwise of any nation is directly dependent on the number of its citizens who have access to education, especially up to the tertiary education level.

He said: “A recent data from the National Universities Commission that out of a population of over 180 million, only about 2 million are enrolled into the universities nationwide, representing 1 percent of the population and clearly indicating that the proportion of the population attending tertiary institutions is low when compared to other advanced countries”.

“Additional data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) shows that between 2010 and 2015, of the 10 million applicants that sought admissions into tertiary institutions, only 26 percent gained admissions”, stated.

According to him, “this indicated that about 75 percent of the applicants fail to gain admissions every year and also reinforcing the fact that access to tertiary education is low in Nigeria”.

“One of the factors contributing to poor access to tertiary education is the predatory admission policies being enforced by tertiary institutions, particularly the requirement for payment of non-refundable acceptance fees as condition precedent for admissions.”

The lawmaker further expressed concern that many federally operated tertiary institutions charge as much as N30, 000 per student, while some States and private institutions charge significantly more, as evidenced in the following:

Akwa Ibom State University ((AKSU) - N30,500;
University of Ibadan (UI) – N35,000;
University of Lagos (UNILAG) – N20,000;
Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) – N30,000;
Imo State University (lMSU) – N70,000; and
Lagos State University (LASU) – N20,000.

“Applicants are expected to pay the acceptance fees within a short deadline despite having gone through the tortuous process of paying and sitting for the Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE), the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) and making the cut off mark.

“And if they are unable to meet the deadline, the applicants are surcharged for late payment with the risk of losing the offer of admissions.

“If the exploitative admission practices of tertiary institutions in the country are left unchecked, the aspirations of indigent Nigerians to study in Universities will continue to be cut short because of their inability to pay acceptance fees”, the member argued.

The motion sailed through without objections when the presiding Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila called for a voice vote on it, as it was voted overwhelmingly by a majority of members.

https://www.independent.ng/reps-demand-abolition-of-acceptance-fees-in-tertiary-institutions903667-2/

This is a good move, but there are other pressing problems.
The govt should scatter and rearrange our Educational structure. It's failing rapidly.

I keep saying it - Nigeria's education system is embarrassing, shameful and a sham.
Education is the lifeblood of any developed economy/nation.

Nigeria should invest more in education instead of passing useless bills about Social Media regulations and hate speech.
Awon alawada. Hian.

Rwanda, Egypt, Ghana, South Africa...these countries have good education.
Nigeria hasn't done anything reasonable only for ASUU to be striking like thunder.

A whopping 75% of UTME students aren't given admission. That's a SHAME to us as a country. An embarrassment.
Acceptance fee is just 1/50 of the problems that plague our educational structure.

Many federal universities are local champions; they can't match international standards.
Without bias, I'd say Covenant is still one of the best universities in Nigeria.

Our materials are outdated; no laboratories; crazy lecturers; nil technology; ineffective learning systems; sub par examination grading systems.

If Nigeria can effectively pump up her education budget (severely punishing thieving looters), then a mental revolution will sweep the nation in the next ten years.

Government should declare a state of emergency in our educational sector.

I rest my case.