Sanwo-Olu hikes LASU, LASPOTECH payment charges by 31,000 per cent
The government said there was no going back on the initiative which was designed to promote transparency in the way schools collect revenue.
Lagos governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has reportedly instructed all state tertiary institutions to move the collection of tuition and other fees to Payment Technology Limited (Paytech).
Paytech, it turns out, is a private firm that will reportedly get five per cent of whatever fee the institutions collect. The government will also pocket another five per cent of every transaction as part of “administrative” costs.
This, according to exclusive reporting by Premium Times, brings the transaction charges for every fee to 10 per cent.
The Lagos State School of Nursing, Lagos State College of Health Technology, Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH), Lagos State University (LASU), Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED), and Michael Otedola College of Primary Education (MOCPED) are all affected.
Governor Sanwo-Olu’s education adviser Tokunbo Wahab has reportedly written the affected schools to implement the move by September 30 or face serious sanctions.
These schools presently collect payments via platforms that charge a flat rate of between N300 and N400 for every fee paid, no matter how big.
But under the Paytech arrangement, “LASU stream two students who are meant to pay N150,000 as school fees will now be charged N7,500 as transaction charges payable to PAYTECH instead of N415 currently charged by Systemspecs being used by the university,” a source told Premium Times.
This is a 31,000 per cent increase in the transaction charge.
LASPOTECH students will have the service charge on their N21,000-tuition raised from N300 to N1,000.
Those who do business with some of these institutions to the tune of N5 million could incur a service charge of N250,000 as all payments must now be handled by Paytech.
Paytech managing director Folake Bank-Anthony said the high transaction charges “will be worth it” because the private firm would be using special technology to collect the revenue.
Education adviser Wahab said there was no going back on the initiative which he said was designed to promote transparency in the way these schools collect revenue.
The institutions are, however, being advised to not display information about the charges to students when they use Paytech to settle their fees. Wahab promised that “there would be no additional financial burden placed on the students”.
He told school administrators who are not okay with the move to negotiate with Paytech directly.
“Each of them should go and negotiate, and I have said whatever is agreed with one institution will not be disclosed to another by me,” Wahab said.
“But they must be enrolled on the platform because we need to know what is being generated by these schools. We cannot be blackmailed to drop the policy,” he added.
