JUST IN: FEC approves 7-year ban on establishment of new federal tertiary institutions
The federal executive council (FEC) on Wednesday approved a seven-year ban on the establishment of new federal tertiary educational institutions.
President Bola Tinubu presided over the weekly meeting. The moratorium covers universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
Speaking on the ban, Tunji Alausa, minister of education, said the current challenge in Nigeria’s education sector is not about access to federal tertiary education any more but about addressing the duplication of institutions which has led to significant deterioration in both infrastructure and manpower.
“In our country, access to quality financial education is no longer an issue,” he said.
“What we are witnessing today is duplication of new federal tertiary institutions, a significant reduction in the current capacity of each institution, and degradation of both physical infrastructures and manpower.
“If we do not act decisively, it will lead to marked declines in educational quality and undermine the international respect that Nigerian graduates command.”
The said Nigeria currently has 72 federal universities, 108 state universities and 159 private universities.
Alausa added that there are also allied institutions such as monotechnics, colleges of agriculture, health sciences, nursing, and innovation and enterprise institutions.
He noted that the numbers are a reflection of an over-proliferation of institutions without corresponding demand or resource allocation.
Alausa added that there is a critical disconnect between the number of institutions and prospective students.
“For the 2024-2026 academic sessions, about 2.1 million young Nigerians applied to our tertiary institutions,” the minister said.
“However, 199 universities had fewer than 99 applicants, and remarkably, 34 universities had zero candidates applying at all.”
“This worrying trend repeats itself in polytechnics and colleges of education too. In fact, 295 polytechnics had fewer than 99 applicants, and 219 colleges of education suffered similar fates, with 64 colleges receiving no applicants at all.”
This, according to the minister, translates into wasted resources and inefficiencies. He cited an example from the northern region where a federal university had fewer than 800 students but employed over 1,200 staff members. “This is simply not sustainable,” Alausa said, stressing that many federal universities operated at suboptimal capacity while unnecessarily stretching government funding.
He said the ban on the establishment is a decisive step toward correcting the inefficiencies, adding that the government plans to redirect resources toward upgrading the current institutions, improving both physical infrastructure and manpower, and expanding the capacity of existing universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
“We need to improve the quality of our education system and increase the carrying capacity of our current institutions so that Nigerian graduates can maintain and enhance the respect they enjoy globally,” he said.
Alausa thanked President Tinubu for his unwavering commitment and support toward education reform, noting the president’s strong political will.
“The president fervently believes in providing every Nigerian with the highest quality of education, comparable anywhere in the world, and his dedication has been key in advancing these reforms,” he said.
