Nine new private institutions have been authorised by the federal government to open nationwide.
Dr. Tunji Alausa, the Minister of Education, informed State House media of the approval on Wednesday during the Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja, which was chaired by President Bola Tinubu..
He said 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 disclosed that the Tinubu administration inherited 551 pending requests for the establishment of tertiary institutions, which were subjected to stricter approval guidelines.
This, he said, reduced the list to 79 active applications, out of which nine were cleared on Wednesday.
He explained that many of the approved universities had been awaiting accreditation for over six years, with their promoters 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 added that the Federal Government had placed a moratorium on new applications for private universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, except those meeting the new operational standards.
