The Federal Government has appealed to the National Assembly to suspend the approval of bills seeking to establish new federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education for seven years, citing funding constraints and declining academic standards.
The appeal was contained in a memo dated November 2, 2026, from the Federal Ministry of Education and addressed to the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio.
In the memo, signed by the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, and sighted in Abuja on Thursday, the government urged lawmakers to exercise restraint in considering bills for new federal tertiary institutions in line with the seven-year moratorium approved by the Federal Executive Council on August 13, 2025.
Alausa said the policy was introduced to address the proliferation of public tertiary institutions, duplication of academic programmes, underutilisation of existing facilities and the government’s limited capacity to adequately fund the sector.
He argued that the priority should be strengthening existing institutions through improved funding, infrastructure, personnel and modern teaching and research facilities rather than establishing new ones.
The minister listed inadequate lecture halls, overcrowded classrooms, insufficient laboratories, shortage of qualified personnel and deteriorating facilities among the challenges confronting existing federal institutions.
He also disclosed that only N250 billion was released between 2013 and 2021 from the N1.3 trillion Federal Government-ASUU revitalisation commitment covering 2013 to 2018.
Similarly, of the additional N150 billion approved in 2025 for Needs Assessment Intervention, only N50 billion was initially released, leaving substantial outstanding commitments.
According to him, creating more institutions without guaranteed funding would worsen the financial burden on government and undermine the quality of tertiary education.
Alausa cited the consolidation of three state-owned universities in Ekiti into Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, in 2011, as well as institutional reviews in Imo State, as examples of the challenges associated with establishing institutions without sustainable funding.
He further noted that some state governments had approached the Federal Government to take over their universities due to financial difficulties.
The minister also cited international experiences in countries including Australia, Finland, Japan, the United States and South Africa, where institutional mergers and consolidation had been adopted to reduce duplication, improve efficiency and strengthen research capacity.
He identified competing education priorities, including Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) interventions, the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), vocational training programmes and allowances for tertiary institution workers, as additional reasons to avoid expanding the number of institutions without sustainable funding.
Alausa stressed that establishing new institutions involved long-term financial obligations, including infrastructure, recruitment, equipment, utilities and recurrent expenditure, which could become liabilities for successive administrations.
He, however, clarified that the moratorium was not intended to permanently prevent the expansion of tertiary education but to allow government to consolidate existing investments, address institutional deficiencies and improve academic standards.
The minister therefore appealed to Akpabio and the leadership of the National Assembly to support the seven-year moratorium by exercising restraint in considering and passing bills for additional federal tertiary institutions.
He maintained that the success of the education sector should be measured by the quality of education delivered and the competence of graduates rather than the number of institutions established.
The memo was also copied to the Senate Majority Leader, Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele.
