Twenty newly established private universities, including James Hope University owned by Dr. Jim Ovia, founder of Zenith Bank, have been given their provisional licenses.
The licenses were given by the National Universities Commission, which regulates university education in Nigeria.
This has raised the number of private universities in the country to 99, according to the government. Nigeria has 43 federal and 48 state-owned universities.
The Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, who represented the Minister, Adamu Adamu, said approval of the new varsities was proof of the partnership between the government and the private sector in the provision of education in the country.
Even with the current number of universities in the country, Nwajiuba said there was still a need to establish more varsities, to close the educational gap, which he said was compounded by the “gross inadequacy” of access to university admission.
Nwajiuba asked the proprietors of the institutions to provide funding for improved infrastructure and equipment for teaching.
Ovia, the proprietor of James Hope University, located in Lekki, Lagos, who spoke on behalf of the proprietors, said the owners of the schools would keep the rules and regulations of establishing them.
