by Haleem OlatunjiCampus Beat

THE Vice Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede, hasdisclosed that students of the institution pay as low as N90 for accommodation and an additional N2,500 as charges for maintenance,making it a total of N2,590 per annum as accommodation fee.Professor Ogunbodede disclosed this while delivering his speech at the International Campus Journalism Conference, hosted by the Association of Campus Journalists, Obafemi Awolowo University.He mentioned that no university will be happy to see students suffering on the grounds of poor accommodation. For this reason, headded that the University has identified the problems related to the problem and has started makingmoves to tackle them.“What students pay on campus per annum is N90 plus N2,500 for maintenance fees making a total of N2,590 for a whole year and they enjoy free light and free water,” he said.He further said that “less than 25 million naira is made from the halls of residence per year. The monthly electricity bill when students are in session is about 60 million, and when they are not in session, it is between 35-40 million”.The Vice Chancellor admitted that although the fees paid for accommodation by students appears to be very small, it does notaffect the economic standing of the University.Professor Ogunbodede, who also was a member of ACJ OAU in 1977, said that his administration will continue to work towards ensuring the comfort of students in the halls of residence.