By Chidimma C. Okeke, Itodo Daniel Sule & Saawua Terzungwe The federal government has expressed opposition to the proposals by the National Assembly for creation of nearly 200 new universities in the country. It said with almost 200 bills in the National Assembly for establishment of new universities, there is a growing concern that the system is becoming overwhelmed.
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, stated this in Abuja yesterday during the third edition of the 2025 Ministerial Press Briefing. Daily Trust reports that the country currently has 278 universities, 64 of which are federal; 67, state; and 147, private. Bandits abduct 10, injure 2 in Kaduna midnight attacks CBN, NSA go after Naira hawkers, abusers The government had, last month, announced a one-year moratorium on the establishment of new private universities “to enhance the quality and sustainability of private universities, ensuring that only institutions with the necessary financial and academic capacity are granted licenses.
” The minister yesterday emphasised that strengthening the capacities of the existing universities is more important than establishing new ones. He said: “They (lawmakers) are passing a lot of bills. Today, I can tell you that there are almost 200 bills in the National Assembly.
We can’t continue like this. Even 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 viabl.
