The Federal Government has imposed a seven-year ban on the establishment of new federal tertiary educational institutions across the country.
The move was approved during the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Wednesday, August 13, 2025, presided over by President Bola Tinubu.
The decision effectively halts the creation of new universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education during the moratorium.
Explaining the context and necessity of the moratorium, Education Minister Tunji Alausa, noted that the Nigerian education sector’s current challenge has evolved from access to education to addressing the duplication of institutions, which he said has led to significant deterioration in both infrastructure and manpower.
“In our country, access to quality financial education is no longer an issue.
“What we are witnessing today is duplication of new federal tertiary institutions, a significant reduction in the current capacity of each institution, and degradation of both physical infrastructure and manpower.
“If we do not act decisively, it will lead to marked declines in educational quality and undermine the international respect that Nigerian graduates command,” the Minister said.
Minister says Nigeria has enough tertiary institutions
Alausa highlighted the landscape of Nigeria’s tertiary education, noting that there is are vast number of institutions to serve the nation’s needs.
He mentioned that there are 72 federal universities, 108 state universities and 159 private universities, drawing similar patterns within polytechnics and colleges of education.
In the same vein, he cited allied institutions such as monotechnics, colleges of agriculture, health sciences, nursing, and innovation and enterprise institutions.
According to the Minister, the numbers demonstrate an over-proliferation of institutions without corresponding demand or resource allocation, stressing that there’s a critical disconnect between the number of institutions and prospective students.
“For the 2024-2026 academic sessions, about 2.1 million young Nigerians applied to our tertiary institutions.
“However, 199 universities had fewer than 99 applicants, and remarkably, 34 universities had zero candidates applying at all.
“This worrying trend repeats itself in polytechnics and colleges of education too. In fact, 295 polytechnics had fewer than 99 applicants, and 219 colleges of education suffered similar fates, with 64 colleges receiving no applicants at all,” he added.
Alausa explained that the trend translates into wasted resources and inefficiencies.
He referenced the example from the northern region where a federal university had fewer than 800 students but employed over 1,200 staff members.
“This is simply not sustainable,” he stressed, adding that many federal universities operated at suboptimal capacity while unnecessarily stretching government funding.
He explained that the moratorium on establishing new federal tertiary institutions represents a decisive step toward correcting these inefficiencies.
The Minister disclosed the government’s plan to redirect resources towards upgrading the current institutions, improving both physical infrastructure and manpower, and expanding the capacity of existing universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
“We need to improve the quality of our education system and increase the carrying capacity of our current institutions so that Nigerian graduates can maintain and enhance the respect they enjoy globally,” he added.
