Nigerian govt rules out handover of varsities to private investors

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, said on Tuesday the Federal Government has no plan to hand over public universities in the country to private investors.

Mamman made the clarification at the ministry’s Second Quarterly Engagement with Heads of units and Chief Executive Officers of parastatals and agencies under its jurisdiction.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had recently accused the federal government of planning to hand over federal universities to investors through public-private partnerships.

The minister said: “There is no plan to sell off universities to investors. The policy of the government allowed for transnational education.

“Some people are carrying information that the federal government is selling off to private investors its universities. This is an absolute lie and completely false.

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“This government believes in our public institutions. However, as we all know this government has reforms that this country needs.

“The private sector will play a major role in the provision of tertiary education as there are more private universities in Nigeria than public universities combined.

“What this government has done is to open up the tertiary education level in particular the universities for global competitiveness.”

He stressed the need for the government to allow people with international exposure to come into the country and set up institutions either for themselves or in collaboration with local universities.

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