An extraordinary session of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Monday approved the licensing of 37 new universities in Nigeria.
This was announced by Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, after the meeting at the State House, Abuja where he noted that this brings to 72 the total number of universities licensed by the Buhari administration since 2015.
He did not name the universities, but revealed that one of them is an online university, the first of its kind in Nigeria, and owned by a woman from Bauchi State, with expectation that it will cater for the likes of northern Muslim women who feel reluctant or are restrained from attending physical campus education.
Asked by journalists if the additional universities are really expedient given the funding challenges of existing ones, Adamu explained that these ones are all private, with enough funds to run them and they should not be denied the opportunity to exist.
Besides, according to the Minister, Nigeria actually needs more universities as the available ones are nor adequate to take up all those aspiring for higher education.
