The Federal Government of Nigeria has warned tertiary institutions against signing Public-Private Partnership deals that put investor profits ahead of student welfare. The directive was issued during a high-level stakeholders’ engagement session on tertiary institution infrastructure held at 10:00 AM on Thursday, November 5, 2026, in the Main Auditorium of the Federal Ministry of Education, Secretariat Complex, Abuja. ​
Addressing vice-chancellors, rectors, and provosts of federal universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, emphasized that while private sector collaboration remains a key strategy for addressing the nation’s infrastructure deficit, it must not become a vehicle for financial exploitation.
He stressed that essential services such as student accommodation, transport, and campus utilities under PPP arrangements must remain affordable and strictly regulated by institutional governing councils. ​To enforce compliance, Dr. Sani-Gwarzo announced that the Ministry has constituted an independent committee to audit all ongoing and proposed PPP projects across federal institutions, aiming to identify and renegotiate exploitative clauses.
Moving forward, school managements were instructed that no contract, particularly those involving build-operate-transfer hostel projects, will be valid without prior evaluation and clearance from the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission and the Ministry. Institutional heads who fail to comply or sign off on predatory commercial terms face administrative sanctions and the immediate termination of non-compliant concessions.
​Echoing these concerns, the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Professor Chris Maiyaki, urged university heads to strike a careful balance between attracting private capital and maintaining the accessible, non-profit mandate of public education.
He highlighted the need to mitigate mounting economic pressures on students through transparent governance frameworks. Concluding the session, the Ministry announced that comprehensive operational guidelines for public-private engagements will be published and circulated nationwide before the end of the fourth quarter.
