Business
Architect Of £9,000 Tuition Fees Calls For Faster Loan Repayments
Architect of £9,000 tuition fees calls for faster loan repayments
David Willetts says taxpayers footing too much of the bill for university students’ unpaid loans
The government should build universities in places such as Blackpool to help regenerate local economies, and boost higher education funding by making graduates repay loans more quickly, according to the minister who created England’s current student funding system.
David Willetts, the former universities minister who oversaw the switch to £9,000 student loans for tuition fees in 2012, said taxpayers were footing too much of the bill for unpaid loans.
His solution is for the government to lower the starting threshold for repaying student loans to earnings of £21,000, from the current rate of 27,295. That would save the government nearly £3bn a year, but graduates from England would see their tuition and maintenance loan repayments more than treble.
Under Lord Willetts’ proposals, a graduate earning £30,000 annually would see their repayments rise to £67 a month or £800 a year, compared with £20 a month or £243 a year now.
“It is in the interests of students that universities are well funded. But that should not come at the expense of taxpayers. It is wrong that forecast loan write-offs have risen from 28% [in 2012] to 53% today,” Willetts said. Using the proposed lower threshold, 44% of loans would be written off by the government.
It has been reported that ministers plan to lower the earnings threshold for repayments as part of the upcoming comprehensive spending review, and cuts to tuition fees and limits on some courses are also being considered.
The threshold cut was among the measures recommended by the Augar review of higher education in 2019, which also suggested cutting tuition fees to £7,500 and extending loan repayments from 30 to 40 years.
Jo Grady, the general secretary of the University and College Union, said that instead of burdening more students with debt, the focus should be on “proper” public funding. She said: “Lord Willetts, as the architect of £9k tuition fees, cannot claim to be concerned about the high levels of student debt while simultaneously proposing to hit lower-earning graduates with debt repayments.
“Lowering the repayment threshold to £21k, which is well below the average wage, will be a millstone around the neck of young graduates and risks putting students off from getting the education they need. It also fails to address the systemic problems with the university funding model which has led to rampant job insecurity and a precipitous decline in part-time and mature study.”
Writing in a paper for the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi), Willetts argued that demand for university degrees remained high, and he called for the government to keep expanding the higher education sector as a way of encouraging economic growth.
“Higher education has fallen out of favour. But it boosts earnings, wellbeing and the prospects of people and areas left behind,” Willetts said. “Conservatives are increasingly worried that graduates are leftwing but the party’s problem is with young people more widely. The best way to tackle this problem is by helping them fulfil their aspirations to own their home, get a decent job and – yes – go to university.”
Willetts argued that rather than attempt to reduce the numbers of school-leavers going into higher education, the government should continue to encourage campuses to appear across England.
“Many towns without one see gaining a higher education institution as one of the best ways of boosting their prospects. They attract young people to an area instead of losing them as they go to university elsewhere,” he said. “Blackpool council is supposed to have turned down a new university decades ago, so it went to Lancaster instead: now is the time for Blackpool to rethink that decision. Other towns such as Wigan and Wakefield are candidates,” Willetts writes.
Portsmouth is one of those cities that hugely benefits from its university, according to its vice-chancellor, Prof Graham Galbraith. The university has a decade-long strategic partnership with the local hospital trust, it sponsors the football club, is setting up a multi-academy trust and has plans to invest several hundred million in its city estate over the next few years.
“We are typical of universities in their cities up and down the UK,” said Galbraith. “We are the fourth largest employer in the city with a regional economic impact of £624m per annum, supporting nearly 9,500 jobs every year.
“These numbers might seem abstract but they translate to city centre shops, taxi drivers and businesses experiencing better sales when the students arrive at the start of term than at Christmas. You can imagine how much of a boost that this will be this year and the clear long-term impact our university has in our local community and economy.”
Also in the Hepi paper, Willetts included one unusual proposal: allowing universities to buy the student loans of their own graduates, giving the institutions an incentive for their graduates to earn more and continue making repayments.
“Universities should be able, if they wish, to take a stake in their own graduates’ debt so if the graduate earns more the university gets more back,” Willetts said. “The scheme needs to be designed so that universities do not have an incentive simply to select the students who will earn most.”
Willetts said such a scheme could enable universities to buy their own graduate debt at a discount to the market price, minus the university’s own write-off charge.
Responding to the paper, a Department for Education spokesperson said: “The student loan system is designed to ensure all those with the talent and desire to attend higher education are able to do so, whilst ensuring that the cost of higher education is fairly distributed between graduates and the taxpayer.
“We do not comment on speculation in the run-up to fiscal events.”
Business
NNPC refineries may never work again – Dangote

The President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has stated that Nigeria’s state-owned refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna may never function properly again, despite the reported $18 billion spent on their rehabilitation.
Speaking while hosting members of Global CEO Africa at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, Dangote revealed that his decision to construct the 650,000-barrel-per-day facility followed the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua’s administration’s refusal to sell the refineries to him.
According to Dangote, he and other investors had acquired the refineries in January 2007 but were compelled to return them to government ownership after a change in administration. He observed that despite significant subsequent investment, the refineries have remained inoperative.
“The refineries we bought before, which were owned by Nigeria, were producing about 22 per cent of PMS. We bought them in January 2007 but had to return them due to a change in government. The managing director at that time convinced Yar’Adua that the refineries would work,” he said.
“As of today, they have spent about $18 billion on those refineries, and they are still not working. I doubt very much if they will ever work,” he added.
Dangote likened the rehabilitation efforts to attempting to upgrade a 40-year-old car with modern technology, suggesting that even a new engine would not be compatible with the outdated framework.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had earlier expressed similar misgivings. In a previous interview, he asserted that the NNPC knew it was incapable of effectively operating the refineries but actively blocked private sector involvement.
Obasanjo disclosed that Dangote and other investors had paid $750 million to acquire the refineries, only for the deal to be reversed by the Yar’Adua administration.
“I told Yar’Adua the refineries would not work. I said, ‘NNPC cannot do it.’ He said, ‘NNPC said they can.’ I told him, ‘When you want to sell them again, you won’t find anyone willing to pay even $200 million as scrap.’ And that is where we are today,” Obasanjo said.
He alleged that the failure to privatise the refineries was fuelled by entrenched corruption within the NNPC, and insisted that those responsible should be held accountable.
Obasanjo further claimed that over $2 billion had been spent on the refineries in recent years, with no tangible results.
“If anyone says the refineries are working, why are they now relying on Aliko Dangote? He will make his refinery work and deliver,” he said.
Business
Nigerian stock market hits historic N1.806trn gains

The Nigerian Stock Exchange, under Nigerian Exchange Group, NGX, Limited, recorded a historic milestone as investors gained N1.806 trillion in a single day.
This development follows a significant rise in the All-Share Index, ASI, which surged by 2,457.13 points, or 2.01 per cent, to close at 124,446.80, crossing the 124,000 mark for the first time, from its previous close of 121,989.67.
The market’s positive performance has been attributed to growing investor confidence in Nigeria’s equities market, bolstered by improved liquidity conditions and ongoing economic reforms.
Market capitalisation similarly rose by 2.35 per cent to settle at N78.726 trillion on Thursday, up from N76.970 trillion recorded on Wednesday.
Consequently, market breadth closed strongly positive, with 70 gainers and only 10 losers.
On the gainers’ table, FTN Cocoa rose by 10 per cent to end the session at N6.82, while UPDC also gained 10 per cent, closing at N4.62 per share.
United Bank for Africa, UBA, soared by 10 per cent to settle at N39.60, while Consolidated Hallmark Holdings similarly rose by 10 per cent to close at N3.30 per share.
Haldane McCall also gained 10 per cent, ending the session at N4.73 per share.
Conversely, Neimeth International Pharmaceutical declined by 9.91 per cent, finishing at N9, while Legend Internet shed 9.88 per cent to settle at N7.21 per share.
Industrial and Medical Gases dropped by 7.36 per cent to close at N34, and Cadbury Nigeria fell by 6.22 per cent, ending the day at N55 per share.
Similarly, Livestock Feeds lost 5.67 per cent, closing at N9.15 per share.
In terms of market activity, 1.3 billion shares valued at N27.73 billion were exchanged across 27,875 transactions.
This compares to 888.70 million shares worth N15.609 billion traded in 24,303 transactions on Wednesday.
Leading the activity chart was Access Corporation, with 174.22 million shares valued at N3.99 billion.
AIICO Insurance followed with 81.96 million shares worth N165 million, while Ja Paul Gold recorded 74.01 million shares traded, valued at N245.2 million.
UBA exchanged 64.51 million shares worth N2.52 billion, and First City Monument Bank traded 63.3 million shares valued at N585.75 million.
Business
NAFDAC uncovers expired chemicals, additives, seals warehouses

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has uncovered a massive illegal operation involving the sale of fake chemicals, expired food flavours, unauthorised fertilisers, and repackaged pharmaceutical raw materials in the Alapere area of Ketu, Lagos.
The agency, in a statement, disclosed that the operation led to the arrest of several suspects and the sealing of three warehouses filled with dangerous substances.
NAFDAC Director of Investigation and Enforcement, Martins Iluyomade, told journalists that the raid followed credible intelligence about a criminal network engaged in large-scale food and chemical counterfeiting.
Iluyomade described the agency’s action as its campaign carried out to protect the health of Nigerians, stressing that individuals posing as legitimate business operators while engaging in activities that seriously endanger public health.
According to him, the offence was the sale and repackaging of expired chemicals, some of which were dangerously redirected for use in food and drug production.
He explained that several controlled substances and high-risk materials, including fertilisers requiring special clearance from the National Security Adviser, were found stocked without any authorisation.
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