The federal executive council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu has approved a five-year ban on the establishment of new federal tertiary educational institutions across the country.
The ban.covers universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
Minister of education, Tunji Alausa said the context and necessity of the moratorium, noting that the present 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,” said the minister.
“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.”
He stated that there are 72 federal universities, 108 state universities and 159 private universities, and pointed out similar patterns within polytechnics and colleges of education.
“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.”
