Abuja is setting up another government-owned university

Authorities in Abuja will set up a second government-owned university in the federal capital as a way to decongest the city’s prime college of education.

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) said on Thursday that it would establish the FCT University of Technology to increase access to tertiary education and decongest the FCT College of Education Zuba, Abuja.

The mandate secretary, education secretariat, FCTA, Danlami Hayyo, said this during the inauguration of deans, directors, head of departments, chairmen and members of standing committees of College of Education, Zuba.

Learn more

The University of Abuja is located some 45 kilometres away from the city centre, making some residents to complain of difficulty in accessing the institution.

Yet the federal government’s penchant for opening new universities has not been a popular policy as many existing state-owned institutions are poorly funded.

In June, the federal government gave provisional licences to 37 new private universities, for the schools to start operations.

The institutions brought the number of universities in Nigeria to 264. Private institutions are 147, according to the National Universities Commission (NUC).

Enrollment in tertiary institutions in Nigeria is put at 2.23 million people, which is just 12% of the total population, according to Abubakar Rasheed, the executive secretary of the NUC. He said the figure shows enrollment is low and inadequate.

FCTA’s Mr Hayyo said the government will also consider creating a new polytechnic in Abuja.

“Establishing the university will help to reduce the pressure at the college, and if possible, we will also establish a polytechnic to accommodate the large number of youths seeking tertiary education in FCT,” he said.