The Federal Government has directed tertiary institutions across Nigeria to phase out their satellite campuses, calling them “inefficient and unsustainable.”
Speaking at a strategic engagement session organized by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) in Lagos, Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, urged institutions to consolidate resources for maximum value.
“Don’t play politics with education. Those with satellite campuses, look at how you can congregate them into one campus,” Alausa said. “We want to get maximum value for every fund, and tertiary institutions should be value-driven. Migrate away from satellite campuses.”
He revealed that the government is introducing a policy that bars institutions with fewer than 2,000 students from accessing TETFund resources.
“We are re-evaluating how institutions benefit from TETFund. We can no longer incentivise poor performance or underutilisation,” Alausa stated.
He cited examples of polytechnics established as far back as 2019 that still have under 600 students. “This is inefficient and unsustainable,” he said.
“Any institution that, after five years, still has fewer than 2,000 students may be deemed ineligible for TETFund support until they scale up.”
The minister also announced a shift in government focus from foreign scholarships to strengthening local institutions, revealing that 85% of Nigerians sent abroad on scholarship never return.
“Our evidence-based analysis showed that many of the programmes studied abroad could be handled effectively within our institutions,” Alausa said. “That’s why we’ve established 28 centres of excellence across public and private tertiary institutions.”
TETFund Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono, added that the agency is also moving toward a more sustainable funding model. “We aim to reduce reliance on government subvention and encourage Public-Private Partnerships in key areas like hostel development and innovation parks,” he explained.
Echono warned that institutions mismanaging funds or failing to meet performance benchmarks risk being removed from the list of TETFund beneficiaries.
