The Vice-Chancellor of Bayero University Kano (BUK), Prof. Sagir Adamu-Abbas, has revealed the reasons behind the recent hike in the institution’s registration fees.

Adamu-Abbas said the high cost of running BUK, especially the provision of electricity which he estimated to be about N75 million monthly, was the main reason behind the recent hike in the university’s registration fees.

The BUK VC stated that the bill for electricity was about N35 million monthly, while the bill for purchase of diesel for generators was about N40 million.

He made this known during a meeting with the delegation of the Education Correspondents Association of Nigeria (ECAN) led by the chairman of the association, Chuks Ukwuatu, over the weekend in Kano.

Adamu-Abbas noted that the management of BUK was forced to increase the registration fees because it was practically impossible to provide social services to a student population of about 45,000, including postgraduates as well as teaching and non-teaching staff population of over 5,000.

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He, however, said the increment was done in full consultation with staff unions, including the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), among others, and students.

The BUK Vice-Chancellor stated that the university management has introduced various welfare packages to cushion not only the impact of its recent registration fees hike, but the effect of the fuel subsidy removal on staff such as non-interest loans from Microfinance banks payable within six months.

“Other incentives introduced to cushion the effect of the increase in fuel price that has caused the high price of commodities, were provision foodstuffs, shuttle buses, bicycle loans for junior staff payable within nine months at a cheaper rate,” Adamu-Abbas added.

He further stated that the university also introduced a kind of job scheme for students, whereby they were engaged to render some services to the university and they were paying N15,000 monthly

“This does not affect their normal learning because it does not take much of their time as some were to clean some surroundings or render certain minus service within the university and got paid at the end of the month,” the BUK VC said.

The Star