The Federal Government has approved the establishment of nine new private universities across Nigeria.
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 Tinubu in Abuja.
The newly licensed universities are:
Alausa revealed that the Tinubu administration inherited 551 pending applications for the establishment of tertiary institutions, which were reviewed under stricter approval guidelines. This, he said, cut the list to 79 active applications, with nine cleared for approval on Wednesday.
He added that many of the newly approved universities had been awaiting accreditation for over six years, with their promoters having already built campuses and invested billions of naira in infrastructure.
“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,” Alausa said.
The minister further stated that the Federal Government has imposed a moratorium on new applications for private universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, except for those that meet the newly established operational standards.