₦airaland Forum

The federal executive council (FEC) meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday has approved a five-year ban on the establishment of new federal tertiary educational institutions across the country.

The moratorium covers universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.

Tunji Alausa, minister of education, explained the context and necessity of the moratorium, noting that the current challenge in Nigeria’s education sector is no longer about access to federal tertiary education 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,” the minister 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 infrastructure 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.”

Alausa outlined the scale of Nigeria’s tertiary education landscape, noting the vast number of institutions.

He said there are 72 federal universities, 108 state universities and 159 private universities, and highlighted similar patterns within polytechnics and colleges of education.

The minister also cited allied institutions such as monotechnics, colleges of agriculture, health sciences, nursing, and innovation and enterprise institutions.

He noted that the numbers demonstrate an over-proliferation of institutions without corresponding demand or resource allocation.

Alausa said 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,” he 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.

The moratorium on establishing new federal tertiary institutions, he indicated, is a decisive step toward correcting these inefficiencies.

The minister said 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 Bola 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.

DSS1335:
Who presided over the FEC meeting?

Recently there has been report of appointments and approvals, who is giving out this orders?

BlackViper:
https://www.thecable.ng/fec-imposes-7-year-ban-on-establishment-of-new-federal-tertiary-institutions/

DSS1335:
Who presided over the FEC meeting?

Recently there has been report of appointments and approvals, who is giving out this orders?

akpumping7720:
Good one. Gocus on the existing ones. ....
Hope another government won't cancel this.

fabolouz1:
Should be more , it seems all what some members of the national Assembly does is sponsor a Bill establishing tertiary institution of learning in their senatorial district rather than push for funding of existing ones .

ufotunang:
Abi..that is the right thing to do.. rehabilitate, upgrade the existing universities and tertiary institutions.. instead of building more universities and other institutions which you will find it difficult to maintain and fund

Fiscus105:
Long overdue, infact, if possible they should merge.

How can a state university would be having 3 different universities, wen they cannot even fund just one.


The Govs will still find way to evade it by establishing, sch of nurse, sch of agriculture etc. as political patronages for their constituencies.