FEC imposes 7-year ban on new federal tertiary institutions

The Federal Executive Council (FEC), chaired by President Bola Tinubu, has approved a seven-year moratorium on the establishment of new federal tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The decision, announced after Wednesday’s FEC meeting, affects universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.

Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, explained that the move is aimed at addressing the growing inefficiencies in Nigeria’s tertiary education system, which he said has shifted from a problem of access to one of sustainability and quality.

“Access to tertiary education is no longer the major challenge in Nigeria,” Alausa said. “What we face now is a proliferation of institutions without proper planning, leading to declining infrastructure, inadequate manpower, and falling standards.”

Alausa outlined the scale of the issue, noting that Nigeria currently has 72 federal universities, 108 state universities and 159 private universities alongside numerous polytechnics, monotechnics, colleges of education, nursing, agriculture, and innovation institutions.

He highlighted a troubling trend: many institutions are severely under-enrolled.

“For the 2024–2026 academic sessions, around 2.1 million candidates applied to tertiary institutions. Yet, 199 universities received fewer than 99 applicants—and 34 had zero,” Alausa said.
“The pattern is even worse in polytechnics and colleges of education: 295 polytechnics had fewer than 99 applicants, and 64 colleges had no applicants at all.”

The minister also cited a case in the northern region, where a federal university with fewer than 800 students employs over 1,200 staff.

“This is unsustainable,” he emphasized. “We are spreading our limited resources too thin, leading to suboptimal capacity and wasting public funds.”

The government, Alausa said, will now redirect funding and policy focus toward upgrading existing institutions. This includes improving physical infrastructure, increasing staffing quality, and expanding the student-carrying capacity of already established universities, polytechnics, and colleges.

“We must enhance the quality and global competitiveness of Nigerian graduates,” he said.
“This moratorium is a necessary corrective step to ensure our institutions are properly equipped and well-run.”

He thanked President Tinubu for his commitment to education reform, citing the president’s strong political will and belief in delivering globally competitive education to Nigerian youths.

Despite the moratorium on new federal institutions, the FEC approved the licensing of nine new private universities. Alausa clarified that these approvals were part of a longstanding backlog within the National Universities Commission (NUC).

“Some of these applications have been pending for over six years, with investors already having built campuses and invested billions of naira,” he said.
“Reforms in the NUC have now streamlined the process, allowing us to clear this backlog.”

The ministry reviewed over 350 dormant applications and deactivated them, leaving only 79 active proposals. Of these, nine met the revised requirements and were approved.

Moving forward, Alausa noted, the moratorium will also apply to new private tertiary institutions unless they meet the new compliance standards.

“If we fail to act, graduate unemployment will continue to rise. We’re seeing too many graduates without life or employability skills,” he said.

“This policy is essential to protect the quality and sustainability of Nigeria’s tertiary education system.”