The Federal Government has granted approval for the establishment of nine new private universities across Nigeria, marking a significant expansion in the country’s higher education sector.
Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, announced the development on Wednesday while briefing State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu in Abuja.
The newly approved institutions are:
Tazkiyah University, Kaduna State
Leadership University, Abuja
Jimoh Babalola University, Kwara State
Bridget University, Mbaise, Imo State
Greenland University, Jigawa State
JEFAP University, Niger State
Azione Verde University, Imo State
Unique Open University, Lagos State
American Open University, Ogun State
Alausa revealed that the Tinubu administration inherited 551 pending applications for new tertiary institutions. These were subjected to stricter evaluation criteria, reducing the active list to 79 viable proposals, out of which nine received approval on Wednesday.
He noted that some of the newly approved universities had been awaiting accreditation for more than six years, despite their promoters having completed physical structures and invested billions of naira in facilities.
“Due to inefficiencies within the National Universities Commission (NUC), many applications suffered long delays. We have now implemented reforms to streamline the approval process, and today’s announcement is part of clearing that backlog,” Alausa explained.
The minister further disclosed that the Federal Government has placed a moratorium on new applications for private universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, except for those that meet the revised operational and infrastructural standards.
