3rd February, 2023
By Abbas Bamalli
The management of Katsina based Al-Qalam University has appealed Governor Abdullahi Ganduje led Kano State Government to pay the sum of N38.183 million students scholarship’s debt it is owing the institution.
Prof. Nasiru Musa-Yauri, the Vice Chancellor of the University who revealed this to journalists on Thursday in Katsina said while speaking on the challenges facing the institution which is being run as a charity.
According to Musa-Yauri, the initial debt of Kano State Government to Al-Qalam was over N52.8 million.
“As we are discussing now, we are still expecting the Kano Government to fulfill its financial obligation to us on some of the students it gave scholarships to study in our university.
“We are appealing to Nigerians with conscience to help us appeal to the Kano state Government for the payment of the money.”
“The total amount was N52.8 million, but the Kano Government said it would not pay for those with the spill-over among the students. So, we said, okay.
“Up till now, the state government has not paid the N38.183 million despite the fact that this university is a charity institution and we depend on people and organisations with kind hearts for survival,” the VC said.
He further appealed to the government to fulfill its financial obligation by considering the plight of the downtrodden students the university takes care of.
Musa-Yauri said the N38.183 million would be deployed for development of infrastructure if the university got the money.
He explained further that the university also shared from the challenges of not being encouraged, in spite of its low tuition fees.
According to him, the institution’s tuition fees per session are about N135,000 and N270,000 respectively, depending on course of study, adding that they also allowed staggered payment of the tuition fees.
“You can pay parts of the tuition fees at the end of the first semester, the end of the second semester and at the end of the third semester, to make it easier for you, since we know that the majority of our students are from low earning groups.
The commissioner confirmed that sometimes ago she had a discussion with the management of the university on how to settle the debt.
The Kano State Commissioner for Higher Education, Hajiya Mariya Mahmoud-Bunkure, told NAN that she was aware of the issue.
She said following the discussion with the school management, she filed the report and submitted to Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje, but still waiting for his response.
(NAN)
AABS/BEkl/IA