The Federal Government has approved the establishment of nine new private universities across Nigeria, bringing the total number of privately owned universities in the country to 168.
Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, announced the development on Wednesday while briefing State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Alausa revealed that the Tinubu administration inherited 551 pending requests for the establishment of tertiary institutions. These applications, he said, were subjected to stricter vetting under the government’s new approval guidelines, reducing the active list to 79, out of which nine received final clearance on Wednesday.
The Minister explained that several of the newly approved universities had been awaiting accreditation for more than six years, with promoters having already completed campuses and invested billions of naira.
“Due to inefficiencies within the National Universities Commission (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 stated.
He further disclosed that the Federal Government had placed a moratorium on new applications for private universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, except for proposals that meet the newly introduced operational standards.
List of Newly Approved Private Universities:
- 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
Before this latest approval, Nigeria had 159 private universities, according to the NUC. The addition of the new institutions now raises the number to 168.
