Private Universities Create Competition – Education Minister

The Minister of Education , Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, has said that the growth of private universities in Nigeria had created an environment for healthy competition that stimulated improvement for quality service delivery in the Nigerian University System (NUS). He stated this while presenting the operational licence to the two recently- approved Private Universities, namely Edwin Clack University, Kiagbodo, Delta State and Hezekiah University, Umudi, (the first private university in Imo State). Mal. Shekarau, noted that the impact of the quality in the NUS was seen from the results of the highly competitive African Centres of Excellence Award conducted by the World Bank and released in June/July 2014, with 19 Universities from West and Central Africa, including 10 from Nigeria, as successful. He added that the first and third of the 19 Universities ranked, were private Universities in Nigeria. To reduce the challenge of access to university education in Nigeria, the Minister said that the Federal Government had issued provisional license to the two institutions, which had brought the number of private universities in the country to 61. The minister noted that the private universities had, recently expanded admission spaces for the swelling population of candidates seeking university education in the country.