The federal government of Nigeria has denied reports that it plans to sell the nation’s public universities to private investors.
The Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, made the public denial on Tuesday while speaking during the Second Quarterly Engagement of the ministry with heads of units and chief executive officers of parastatals and agencies under the ministry.
The Minister, however, added that part of the reforms the current administration is embarking upon involves what is called transnational education.
This, according to the Minister’s explanation, is a policy on what the government is doing to open up tertiary education by allowing people from the rest of the world to come and invest in the nation’s tertiary system.
Mamman, who was responding based on the background of an earlier allegation by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) that the government wants to sell off the public institutions to private investors, stressed that what the government is promoting is a public-private partnership in the interest of the nation’s educational sector.
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”There is no plan to sell off universities to investors,” the Minister said.
“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.
“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 added.
The Minister said Nigeria must begin to adopt international best practices by allowing those who operate universities at the international level to come into the country and set up institutions either for themselves or in collaboration with local universities.
He said that this is in no way related to selling the institutions, noting that guidelines on transnational education had been in place.
“In other parts of the world, like Asia, they have benefited immensely from having international institutions in those countries.
“They have taken standards to those countries and also for the exchange and bringing money to those countries,” he said.
