A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kano State, Auwal Dankano, has called on the state government to suspend all overseas scholarship programs and use the money to fund local universities instead.
He made the statement while reacting to the recent increase in registration fees at Northwest University, where the charges rose from ₦19,000 to almost ₦53,000.
Dankano said the increase may be due to financial problems faced by the university.
He stressed that it goes against Kano State’s policy on free and accessible education.
“Yes, we are all aware that the management unofficially complained about shortage of funds to run the varsity, hence they decided to make the increase,”; he said.
“To say the fact, the school authority has a valid reason to increase the fees. But this is not in line with the Kano State policy on education.”;
He advised the government to look for other ways to support universities rather than putting the burden on students and their families.
“In my view, the government should reverse the increase and create an avenue where the deficit should be funded elsewhere,”; Dankano suggested.
He urged the government to suspend overseas scholarships and use those funds to support Northwest University and Sa’adatu Rimi University of Education.
“Yes, the government should suspend overseas scholarship and channel the money to the two universities in the state,”; he said.
According to him, each of the two institutions has an estimated 10,000 students from Kano, and the government would need about ₦1.5 billion every year to cover their financial needs.
“Based on assumptions, the average 10,000 Kano indigenes in each of the two state-owned universities, the state government needs to pay about ₦1.5 billion annually. That will fill in the gap, and make education for all,”; Dankano said.
