ABUJA, Nigeria — The Federal Government has launched a major reform of Nigeria’s tertiary education accreditation system, warning universities, polytechnics and colleges of education against temporarily borrowing lecturers, equipment, laboratories and other facilities to create a false impression of institutional capacity during accreditation exercises.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, announced the reform on Wednesday in Abuja while inaugurating the Ministerial Committee on Strengthening the Accreditation and Quality Assurance System for Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa,
According to the minister, accreditation must reflect the actual and sustainable capacity of an institution, rather than a temporary arrangement assembled specifically for the arrival of an accreditation team.
“What an institution presents for accreditation must be what actually exists in that institution and what is sustainably available to its students,” Alausa said. (Ministério da Informação e Orientação Nacional)
The minister said the government would no longer accept a situation in which institutions temporarily assemble academic personnel, laboratories, workshops, libraries, equipment or other facilities simply to satisfy regulatory requirements.
He stressed that tertiary institutions must meet prescribed standards throughout the year, rather than preparing only when accreditation teams are scheduled to visit.
The Federal Government plans to transform the current accreditation process from a largely manual and periodic exercise into a digital, data-driven and continuously verifiable quality assurance system.
Under the proposed system, the National Universities Commission (NUC), National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) are expected to strengthen the verification of institutional resources and ensure that information supplied by institutions can be independently confirmed.
The new framework will also make greater use of geospatial mapping, geotagging and secure digital records to establish the actual location and status of institutional facilities and equipment. (Ministério da Informação e Orientação Nacional)
Alausa directed the ministerial committee to develop mechanisms for verifying the authenticity and continuous availability of both academic and non-academic staff, as well as the ownership, functionality, adequacy and accessibility of laboratories, workshops, libraries and major equipment presented during accreditation.
The government is also considering a comprehensive digital identity and staff verification framework to establish the identity and institutional affiliation of personnel presented by tertiary institutions.
The minister said collaboration with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) should be explored, including the appropriate use of the National Identification Number (NIN), Bank Verification Number (BVN) infrastructure and other secure technologies, subject to existing laws and data-protection requirements.
The proposed system is intended to establish what the minister described as the principle of “one individual, one verifiable identity and an accurately declared institutional affiliation.” This would help prevent situations in which the same academic is improperly presented as full-time staff by more than one institution. (Ministério da Informação e Orientação Nacional)
The same principle would apply to major equipment. Critical equipment presented during accreditation should be digitally identifiable and linked to the specific institution and physical location where it is genuinely available.
Alausa said physical accreditation visits would continue, but their purpose should increasingly be to validate already verified institutional data, rather than begin the process of establishing an institution’s capacity from scratch when inspectors arrive.
The minister also warned that officials who manipulate accreditation processes could face serious consequences. Reports from the inauguration indicated that officials who fail to comply with accreditation and regulatory requirements could risk losing their positions, while private institutions that violate prescribed standards could face the loss of their operating licences. (TheCable)
The government’s position addresses a long-standing concern within Nigeria’s tertiary education system: institutions appearing adequately equipped during accreditation visits but struggling to maintain the same level of staffing and facilities after the exercise.
Alausa said the purpose of accreditation should be to provide a reliable picture of an institution’s ability to deliver quality education, not to approve programmes based on resources that disappear once the accreditation team leaves.
The minister also raised concern over illegal admissions in tertiary institutions, saying the scale of the problem had reached hundreds of thousands. He said the government would strengthen enforcement and would no longer allow irregularities in admissions and academic standards to continue unchecked. (Ministério da Informação e Orientação Nacional)
The committee, chaired by Professor Ishaq Oloyede, former Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has been tasked with reviewing existing accreditation policies, standards, guidelines, procedures and operational practices.
Oloyede pledged the committee’s commitment to addressing abuses in the accreditation system and advocated constant monitoring and stronger inspectorate mechanisms to ensure that institutions maintain approved standards beyond the period of accreditation.
He also called for improved coordination between regulatory and professional bodies so that students graduating from accredited programmes can proceed to professional training and registration where applicable. (Ministério da Informação e Orientação Nacional)
The Federal Ministry of Education said it would work with the NUC, NBTE, NCCE and other stakeholders to establish an accreditation system in which standards are authentic, functional, verifiable and sustainably available to students.
The reform represents a significant shift from an accreditation model centred primarily on periodic inspection visits towards one based on continuous quality assurance and independently verifiable evidence.
For Nigerian universities and other tertiary institutions, the implication is clear: lecturers, laboratories, workshops, libraries and equipment presented during accreditation must be genuinely available and maintained as part of the institution’s real capacity — not temporarily brought in to impress an inspection team.
The Federal Government says the ultimate objective is to restore credibility, transparency and sustainability to Nigeria’s tertiary education system and ensure that accreditation reflects the quality of education students actually receive.
