Posted by Chinenye on Wed 23rd Sep, 2026 - tori.ng
Former Lagos State University Vice-Chancellor Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello says public universities may need to charge about N1 million per student to have enough money to run properly.
( Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello. Photo by THECable)
A woman who just finished running Lagos State University says that public universities across Nigeria will have to charge students N1 million as school fees if they want to have enough money to operate properly.
Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello was the vice-chancellor of LASU for five years.
She just ended her job on Saturday.
In an interview, she talked about the money problems that universities face.
She said LASU pays its workers over N1 billion naira every month.
The university gets N13 billion naira from money it makes on its own, but that is not enough to pay all the workers.
She said if universities want to be able to survive without depending on government money, they have to charge much higher school fees.
She pointed out that secondary schools already charge over N1 million per term, which means per three months.
But she said some universities are still only charging about N100,000 per year, which does not make sense.
She said if universities want to have money to run properly, they will have to charge not less than N1 million per student.
Olatunji-Bello said that good quality education costs money.
She asked parents to make paying for their children's education a priority because quality education is not cheap.
During her five years running LASU, there was a big problem in 2024 when students protested because the university wanted to charge N10,000 for a computer test.
She said this was the worst moment of her time as the university leader.
However, she was happy that LASU became the most popular university in Nigeria in 2025.
This means more people wanted to go to LASU than any other university. In 2026, LASU kept that number one position and even received N25 million for following the rules properly.
During her time, she said the university made changes.
They started new programs, made their computer systems better and found new ways to make money.
They increased the money the university makes on its own from N3 billion to N13 billion.
A new woman named Badejo Olawumi, a professor, was appointed to replace Olatunji-Bello on September 10.
The Minister of Education also recently said that government money alone cannot pay for universities to run.
He said universities should find other ways to get money, like from former students, research money, rich people who want to give money and business companies.
He told the leaders of universities to stop waiting for the government to pay for everything.