….College Administration denies growing official hostel charges
By Adesina Wahab
Because the lodging disaster intensifies on the College of Lagos (UNILAG) Akoka campus, personal operators have stepped in to offer different housing, however their costs could also be unaffordable for a lot of college students.
A latest investigation by Vanguard revealed that rents for personal hostels vary between N250,000 and N500,000 per 12 months.
A few of these personal hostels are developed underneath Construct, Function, and Switch (BOT) agreements, whereas others are absolutely owned by personal builders. The lodging vary from single residences to mini flats, with some rooms even outfitted with air conditioners. For instance, El Kanemi Hostel, a BOT challenge, expenses N250,000 per room yearly.
One supply disclosed {that a} hostel developed by the Ladies’s Society affords en suite rooms with air con, with every residence going for as a lot as N800,000 per 12 months.
Many dad and mom have expressed concern that these excessive rents are out of attain for almost all of scholars, additional growing stress on the restricted variety of areas obtainable in UNILAG’s personal hostels. Final tutorial session, the college had fewer than 8,000 lodging areas for practically 40,000 college students.
Talking on the problem, the Dean of College students Affairs, Prof. Nurudeen Obalola, clarified that the college charged N43,000 per mattress house in its dormitory-style hostels final 12 months. He defined that as a result of rising pupil populations and restricted infrastructure, universities are more and more counting on personal operators to fill the lodging hole.
“Universities are transferring away from immediately managing hostel lodging as a result of we aren’t constructing new hostels yearly whereas pupil numbers maintain growing,” Prof. Obalola stated. “As an example, development of the El Kanemi Hostel stopped in some unspecified time in the future, and personal operators needed to step in underneath a BOT association to finish it. They should recoup their funding, which is why the costs are greater.”
Prof. Obalola added that whereas the varsity can not assure the hostel charges will stay the identical within the upcoming session, it’s dedicated to holding prices reasonably priced. “We charged N43,000 final session, and from that, we even gave corridor leaders some cash for his or her corridor anniversaries. I can’t affirm the payment for subsequent session, but it surely gained’t exceed what college students can moderately afford.”
He additional defined that the college faces important operational prices. “Even when college students weren’t on campus, the electrical energy invoice was round N400 million per thirty days. Who is aware of what it is going to be when college students return?”
Prof. Obalola concluded by stating the challenges of off-campus residing. “Rents across the college will not be low-cost, and commuting from house is expensive as a result of excessive transport fares. Staying on campus is the extra handy and cost-effective possibility.”