Despite complaints of proliferation of universities in Nigeria, the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has approved the licensing of 37 new universities in the country.
Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, revealed the information after the extra-ordinary Council meeting on Monday.
He noted that the development brings to 72 the total number of universities licensed by the Buhari administration since 2015.
He failed to name the universities, but revealed that one of them is an online university, the first of its kind in Nigeria, and owned by a woman from Bauchi State, with expectation that it will cater for the likes of northern Muslim women who feel reluctant or are restrained from attending physical campus education.
Fielding questions on the expediency of additional universities given funding challenges of the existing ones, Adamu explained that these ones are all private, with enough funds to run them and they should not be denied the opportunity to exist.
The Minister further explained that Nigeria actually needs more universities as the available ones are not adequate to take up all those yearning for higher education.