Imo Gets Two New Private Universities

By Charles Igbo

“There are inefficiencies at the National Universities Commission” -Education Minister

The Federal Government of Nigeria has approved the establishment of nine Private Universities. Out of the nine, two are Open Universities.

The approvals were given on Wednesday at the Federal Executive Council Meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu.

This was disclosed by the Minister for Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, who also announced the names and locations of the new Universities when he briefed State House Correspondents at the end of the FEC Meeting.

Out of the nine approvals, two are located in Imo State. They are: Bridget University, Mbaise, and Azione Verde University.

Other Universities approved are: Tazkiyah University, Kaduna State, Leadership University, Abuja, Unique Open University, Lagos State, American Open University, Ogun State, Jimoh Babalola University, Kwara State, Greenland University, Jigawa State and, JEFAP University, Niger State.

The Minister disclosed that the President Tinubu Government met 551 applications for Private Universities which it proceeded to  prune down to 79. But, finally, on Wednesday, only nine were approved out of the 79 active applications.

The Minister attributed the delay in approvals to inefficiencies at  the  National  Commission of Universities, NUC.

His words: “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.”

For the records, the Federal Government a couple of days ago said it has put a halt, for seven years, to the establishment of Tertiary Institutions in the country.