The Federal Government has rejected the National Assembly proposal to establish nearly 200 new universities in the country.
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, who stated this in Abuja yesterday during the third edition of the 2025 Ministerial Press Briefing, attributed FG’s stand on the growing concern that the system is becoming overwhelmed.
According to the minister, strengthening the capacities of the existing universities was more important than establishing new ones.
He said: “They (lawmakers) are passing a lot of bills. Today, there are almost 200 bills in the National Assembly. We can’t continue like this. Though we have a lot of them, the capacity for a university to admit is not there. What we need to do now is to rebuild the capacities so that we can offer more viable courses to our citizens.
“We need to stop this (the 200 bills for new universities) from happening. There is so much pressure on the president. We have to, at least, be sensitive to it as well.
“I understand the sentiment of our legislators. They want to show that they are working. We know they are working. But then, we have enough assets, we have enough opportunities out there for students to go to universities.
“What we now need to do is to begin to mobilise more resources to develop infrastructures, build engineering workshops, build laboratories in these universities, recruit international standard teachers, so that we can begin to get these universities to develop, to deliver high quality of education that will be known for as a country.
“Today, if you care to know, we have 64 federal universities, 67 state universities and 147 private universities. If you look at the entire enrolment together, the private universities account for just 7.5 per cent of total undergraduate enrolment. I will tell you the meaning of the number. The total number of undergraduate enrolments today is just about 875,000, which is, at least, fairly low.
“We have universities with less than 1,000 undergraduate students, and there is this intense demand for more universities to be opened. We have to stop that.”
Nigeria currently has 64 federal universities; 67 state; and 147 private.
It would be recalled that the Federal Government approved the establishment of 11 private universities which include New City University, Ayetoro, Ogun State; University of Fortune, Igbotako, Ondo State; Eranova University, Mabushi, Abuja; Minaret University, Ikirun, Osun State; Abubakar Toyin University, Oke-Agba, Kwara State and Southern Atlantic University, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
Others are Lens University, Ilemona, Kwara State; Monarch University, Iyesi-Ota, Ogun State; Tonnie Iredia University of Communication, Benin City, Edo State; Isaac Balami University of Aeronautics and Management, Lagos State and Kevin Eze University, Mgbowo, Enugu State.
