Only 34 of 195 Federal Tertiary Institutions Comply With Directive to Publish Financial Records by May 31
Only 34 of 195 Federal Tertiary Institutions Comply With Directive to Publish Financial Records by May 31
Only 34 federal tertiary institutions out of 195 have complied with a directive by Tunji Alausa, the Minister of Education, to publish their financial records on their website by May 31.
On April 5, the minister directed all the institutions to provide details of their budget allocations, funding details and student population, among others, on their websites.
Alausa said the initiative was meant to strengthen public trust and promote transparency in Nigeria’s higher education system.
“Each institution must provide its Annual Budgetary Allocation in full detail, including the breakdown of expenditure across three core areas: personnel cost, overhead costs and capital expenditure. In addition, institutions are to disclose their Research Grant Revenue from the previous year,” the statement reads in part.
“This data should be separated into two distinct sources: grants obtained from domestic bodies such as local industries, government agencies, or foundations, and those received from international sources, including foreign institutions, multilateral organisations and development partners.
“All federal institutions are expected to comply fully with this directive and ensure that their websites are completely updated no later than May 31, 2025.”
This was months after a report by the Athena Centre for Policy and Leadership, a research institute, revealed that most Nigerian universities’ financial records were shrouded in secrecy. It states that Nigerian universities rank among the least transparent educational institutions in the world.
According to Alausa, the institutions are to upload their annual budgetary allocation, research grant revenue from the previous year, current Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) allocation, endowment fund from the previous year and the total student population for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
ONLY 34 COMPLIED OUT OF 195
FIJ’s checks on Sunday morning revealed that less than half of the universities had published these records, as only 34 of them have complied with the directive.
FIJ noted that the compliance levels among these institutions also varied, as some did partially and others fully.
In the case of the University of Benin, Edo; Alex Ekwueme University, Ndufu-Alike; Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi; Federal University, Lafia, Nasarawa; University of Lagos; Federal University of Technology, Owerri; Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka and others, full compliance were met.
This meant they had made publicly available all or some of the information required by the directive.
Many notable and top-ranking schools are missing from this compliance list.
Some of them are the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo; University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu; Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun; Nigerian Defence Academy Kaduna, Kaduna; National Open University of Nigeria, Abuja; Usumanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto; Nigerian Maritime University Okerenkoko, Delta and others.
On the other hand, only eight federal polytechnics in Nigeria obeyed this directive. This is only 19.51% of all federal polytechnics.
None of the complying institutions have all records, however. The most complying polytechnic is the Federal Polytechnic, Idah, Kogi. Its record on the population of postgraduate students is unavailable.
Others like Federal Polytechnic Ile-Oluji, Ondo; Federal Polytechnic Auchi, Edo; Federal Polytechnic Kano; Federal Polytechnic, Bali, Taraba; Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti, all followed suit but with partial adherence.
Notably among the defiant polytechnics is Yaba College of Technology, Yaba, Lagos, the first polytechnic college in Nigeria. It has yet to publish any of its records.
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In the monotechnics category, only three out of the 90 have any data. Mohammed Lawan College of Agriculture, Maiduguri, Borno; National Institute for Cultural Orientation, Lagos Training School, Lagos State, and one other school have data.
Even the Federal College of Freshwater Fisheries Technology, New Bussa, Niger, which FIJ reported spent N917 million on tricycles and security vehicles in Lagos, has none of its data available.
It is left to be seen what actions would be taken against institutions that didn’t comply with the directive before the deadline. FFIJ
