A comment by the Senior Pastor of Covenant Christian Centre, Poju Oyemade, claiming that medical graduates in Nigeria spend just N500,000 to complete their education, has sparked controversy across social media platforms.

Speaking during a sermon on April 13, Oyemade said Nigerians are being “programmed” on social media to hate their country despite the fact that it costs, for instance,  just N500,000 to study medicine and become a medical doctor in Nigeria.

While comparing the cost of medical education in Nigeria and US, the cleric said: “In Nigeria, a person will graduate as a medical doctor and spend N500,000 throughout to become a doctor. Throughout!

“In America, you graduate from Johns Hopkins and Harvard as a doctor, and you spend $2,000. Are you okay? Do you know how much money you spend. Nigerians are ungrateful,” he added.

CLAIM

Medical students pay only N500,000 to become doctors in Nigeria.

THE FINDINGS

Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE as N500,000 is not enough to study medicine and become a medical doctor in Nigerian Universities.

Since the assumption of office in May 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu introduced a series of economic reforms aimed at stabilising Nigeria’s economy, including the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the naira. However, these policies triggered significant inflation and a cost-of-living crisis. Educational institutions, heavily reliant on government funding and grappling with the soaring costs of goods and services, began reviewing their school fees upward.

By the last quarter of 2023, many government universities increased their fees, sometimes increasing it by 100 to 200 percent. The surge sparked widespread protests across the country, particularly in institutions like the University of Lagos, University of Jos, and Obafemi Awolowo University.

Although the federal government attempted to cushion the effects by launching a student loan scheme, many students and education stakeholders criticised the programme.

Medicine and Surgery, one of the demanding courses in Nigerian universities, was among the affected programmes. Typically under Colleges of Health Sciences in many Nigerian Universities, Medicine is a six-year course requiring access to specialised laboratories, clinical postings, medical equipment, and professional mentorship, all of which cost money.

The FactCheckHub reviewed the school fees of top Federal Universities in Nigeria since they are generally cheaper than state and private Universities, the result shows that the cost throughout the six years is above N500,000.

For instance, Obafemi Awolowo University charges for N190,200 for freshers and N128,200 for returning students. This means a medical student will spend N831, 200 as fees before graduating from the University.

In Bayero University of Kano, fresh medical students pay N171,300 as school fees while returning students pays N160,500. This means a medical student will pay N973, 800 as fees before the end of the programme.

In the University of Lagos, medical students pay averagely N190,250 per session. This means a student will pay an estimated N1.1 million to complete the course in the University.

At Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), the registration fees for the MBBS programme are structured across different levels. Fresh students (100 level) are required to pay ₦124,260.00. In 200 level, students pay ₦115,860.00, while in 300, 400, and 500 levels, the fee rises to ₦124,860.00 each year. In the 600 level, the amount increases to ₦140,160.00. So, excluding spillover, a student will pay ₦754,860 at UDUS throughout their studies.

It’s also worth noting that the figures for school fees do not include several other essential expenses such as hostel accommodation, textbooks and study materials, transportation, and costs associated with assignments, group projects, and seminars. These additional requirements substantially increase the overall cost of studying medicine.

Furthermore, the cost of medical education in private universities in Nigeria is significantly higher, largely because education in public institutions is subsidised. For example, tuition is free in federal universities. The Minister of Health, Muhammad Ali Pate, recently stated that it costs over $21,000 to train a medical student, a figure that aligns with estimates from a peer-reviewed study by Osoba et al. (2021), published in the Pan African Medical Journal, which estimates the cost of training a doctor in Nigeria to range between $21,000 and $51,000—this includes tuition, living expenses, and other associated costs.

VERDICT 

The claim by Poju Oyemade that medical students spend only N500,000 to become doctors in Nigeria is FALSE. Findings show that, due to current economic realities, school fees alone can cost up to N1 million in Nigerian public universities.