Tunji Alausa, minister of education, says the federal executive council (FEC) has approved the nine new private universities.
Alausa spoke in Abuja on Wednesday shortly after the weekly FEC meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu.
The minister listed the new private universities to include Tazkiyah University, Kaduna state; Leadership University, Abuja; Jimoh Babalola University, Kwara state; Bridget University, Mbaise, Imo state; Greenland University, Jigawa state; JEFAP University, Niger atate; Azione Verde University, Imo state; Unique Open University, Lagos state; and American Open University, Ogun state.
Alausa said the Tinubu administration inherited 551 pending requests for the establishment of tertiary institutions, which were subjected to stricter approval guidelines.
He said the list was reduced to 79 active applications out of which nine were cleared on Wednesday.
He noted that many of the approved universities had been awaiting accreditation for over six years, with their promoters having already built campuses and invested billions of naira.
“Due to inefficiencies within the NUC, approvals were delayed. We have since introduced reforms to streamline these processes, and today’s approvals are a result of clearing this backlog,” Alausa said.
The minister stressed that the federal government also had placed a moratorium on new applications for private universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, except those meeting the new operational standards.
