Those intending to establish new tertiary institutions now have to wait as the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved a seven-year moratorium on the exercise.
Dr Tunji Alausa, Minister of Education announced the approval, after Wednesday’s FEC meeting, presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He explained the ban applies to all federal universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
According to Alausa, the decision aims to address systemic decay caused by unregulated expansion.
”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.”
“We are doing this to further halt decays in tertiary institutions which may in future affect the quality of education and consequently cause unemployment of graduates from some of these institutions.”
Alausa noted Nigeria currently has 72 federal universities, 108 state universities, and 159 private universities with similar trends in polytechnics and colleges of education.
He pointed to a growing mismatch between the number of institutions and available student enrollment.
He cited a northern university with fewer than 800 students but over 1,200 staff, calling it unsustainable.
The minister described the moratorium as a bold corrective measure by the Tinubu administration.
He said the government would now focus on upgrading existing institutions, improving infrastructure, boosting manpower, and increasing capacity.
“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.”
The minister however announced that the Council approved 9 new private universities out of the 79 active requests pending applications.
”Several of these applications have been in the pipeline for over six years, with investors having already built campuses and invested billions of Naira,” he explained.
“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.”
