The President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government has approved the establishment of nine new private universities across the country.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, announced the approval on Wednesday while briefing State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu in Abuja.
He stated that 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; and American Open University, Ogun State.
Alausa revealed that the Tinubu administration inherited 551 pending requests for the establishment of tertiary institutions, which were subjected to stricter approval guidelines.
The list of active applications was reduced to 79, with nine cleared on Wednesday.
Many approved universities had been awaiting accreditation for nearly six years, with entrepreneurs having already built campuses and invested billions of naira.
“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 also stated that the Federal Government had imposed a moratorium on new applications for private universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, with the exception of those meeting the new operational standards.
