Universities demand N1.5m in medical courses’ racket

Nigerian universities are illegally asking qualified applicants to medical courses to pay N1.5 million each before being offered admission, BusinessDay has found.

Though the applicants are qualified for admission, having beaten the universities’ cut-off points for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and the post-UTME, they are still compelled to comply.

Applicants who are unable to pay the humongous amount of money will automatically be denied admission.

Seventeen-year-old Onyinye Onuchukwu rues the day she applied to study Nursing at Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU). She scored 275 in her 2024 UTME and also had excellent grades in her West African Senior School Certificate (WASSCE) seen by BusinessDay. Despite these qualifications, she couldn’t still secure admission.

The university admissions office told her that unless she paid N1.5 million for a term popularly known as ‘rob in,’ she would not be able to secure admission, Onuchukwu told BusinessDay.

“Candidates with 250, 220, and even 200 UTME scores were given admission but my daughter with 275 score wasn’t admitted,” Onyinye’s mother, Eberechukwu Onuchukwu, told BusinessDay.

“We were told to pay N1.5 million if we wanted her to study Nursing at NAU.”

The illegal demand forced Mrs Onuchukwu to change her daughter’s school of choice to Abia State University. However, the situation was not different.

“We changed her school to Abia State University, but they also said we had to ‘settle,’”

“Initially, we were asked to pay N500,000 by the school. We ran around and raised it and paid, only for them to increase it to N1 million,” she said.

However, a senior staff member of Abia State University (ABSU), who agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity, told BusinessDay that some applicants erroneously subject themselves to fraudsters, noting that admissions are usually given based on candidates’ first choice.

Read also: 2025 JAMB/UTME subject combination for medicine, computer science, 48 other courses

“It might be difficult to secure admission into ABSU when a candidate used the school as the second choice. The question is, which school is the applicant’s first choice?

“Also, when a person is asked to pay for admission, there is a need for such a person to verify. Nobody collects money for admission in ABSU. The university, as a matter of fact, won N10 million prize money for adhering strictly to JAMB for admission rules some years ago,” he said.

Similarly, Henry Nwanbu, public relations officer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, denied the allegation involving the institution. He said admission to the institution is strictly on merit, noting that anyone asking for money to help someone secure admission is a racketeer.

“Sometimes staff may be involved in this racketeering act. There are three layers considered for admission, which are: merit, educationally less advantaged areas, and transfer.

“Cut off marks are fixed based on the general performance for the year. Admission into UNIZIK is not for sale. Sometimes, students’ wrong subject combinations can hinder them from getting admission even with high UTME scores,” he said.

Same in University of Calabar

At the University of Calabar, a 2023 applicant, who gave his first name as Samson Idahosa, said he was denied admission to Pharmacy because he was not able to raise N1.5 million.

He claimed the admissions office asked him to pay the amount to secure admission to his course of choice.

“I was not able to raise the amount because my father was dead and my mother was a petty trader,” he said.

An applicant, who is already a student of University of Calabar (name withheld), said she was asked to pay N500, 000 to change from Nutrition Science to Nursing after completing her 100-level with good grades.

“I begged them with N300,000, but they refused and told me to go and bring N450,000 if I wanted to study Nursing in the school,” she said.

However, Eyo Eyo, public relations officer at the University of Calabar (Unical), denied these allegations. He said the institution has zero tolerance for admission racketeering.

For inter-faculty transfer, he explained that the official fee is N15,000, which is for processing of the application form.

“It is not welcomed, approved and/or patronised. According to a release issued in January 2024, inter-faculty transfer attracts the payment of N15,000 or N10,000 for the application form processing,” he said.

“Any payment outside of this is not from the university. Please exonerate the University of Calabar from this ugly development.”

Read also: UCH medical students protest 100-day power outage

Competitive courses, Japa

Isaiah Ogundele, an educationist, said medical courses are generally competitive.

He blamed inadequate funding for the limited number of students admitted per year.

“The School of Nursing was not allowed to admit more than 50 before now. Up till now, admission is strictly regulated by the body in charge to give room to the best. Having high grades in O’level and JAMB is never a determinant for admission,” he said.

Bunmi Apologun, a healthcare expert, said medical professionals are in high demand abroad and are well-paid, noting that this could be influencing university admissions in Nigeria.

“It’s a very lucrative profession, but you need to work for your money. Nurses and some healthcare workers are paid £30 to £60 (about N54,810 to N109,620) per hour in the UK,” she said.

According to the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and the General Medical Council (GMC) UK, between 2021 and 2024, 8,560 Nigerian doctors registered with the council, representing 39 percent of all international registrations. Additionally, 2,454 Nigerian doctors migrated to the US, Canada, and Australia during this period.

A Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMC) report indicates that 42,000 nurses left Nigeria in the last three years.

In the face of this, many young Nigerians seeking for opportunities to migrate abroad (japa) are applying for nursing and medical courses in various higher institutions of learning.

Owing to the high application rates for admissions into medical programmes, many university staff members are merchandising admission into such courses, using cut-off and/or catchment area quotas as camouflage to rip off parents financially.

“It is important for the government anti-corruption agencies to investigate this. Those found culpable should be punished,” Onyeka Frank, an Abuja-based anti-corruption crusader, said.