The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, has directed vice-chancellors of Nigerian public universities to reduce their ...
The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, has directed vice-chancellors of Nigerian public universities to reduce their reliance on government allocations and urgently diversify funding sources to support institutional development.
Alausa gave the directive at the National Advancement Forum 2026, where he disclosed that only four of the 68 federal universities were currently making meaningful use of alternative funding sources, including research grants, endowments, alumni giving, philanthropy and industry partnerships.
He described the situation as unacceptable and charged university leaders to make resource mobilisation a core responsibility.
“Government funding is not enough. Universities live, function and excel on blended funding,” the minister said.
He urged vice-chancellors to move beyond managing government allocations and actively build relationships with prominent individuals, alumni, businesses, philanthropists and research funders to attract additional resources.
According to him, universities in advanced systems rely on such networks to fund laboratories, scholarships, research chairs, innovation programmes and other strategic priorities, and Nigerian institutions should adopt similar approaches.
Alausa stressed that the call for greater resource mobilisation did not amount to a withdrawal of government support, noting that the administration of President Bola Tinubu had demonstrated its commitment to education through significant budgetary allocations, tertiary infrastructure investment and other interventions.
He said the Federal Government currently funds personnel costs in full, while universities retain 75 per cent of their internally generated revenue and continue to benefit from direct and special interventions by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
To strengthen institutional resource mobilisation, the minister directed that all university Advancement Offices should henceforth report directly to the offices of vice-chancellors rather than registrars.
He also directed that directors of Advancement should have a minimum internal tenure of five years, renewable where appropriate, to enable them to build sustainable relationships with donors, alumni, industry and other funding partners.
He described advancement officers as professional fundraisers who require institutional support, stability and the confidence of university management to deliver results.
Alausa further urged universities to strengthen alumni engagement by developing functional databases and deploying appropriate technology to maintain lifelong relationships with graduates in Nigeria and abroad.
He stressed that alumni engagement should be treated as a strategic component of institutional advancement.
The minister recalled that before the present administration, some research and endowment funds had been moved into the Treasury Single Account (TSA), creating challenges around access and affecting confidence in the management of such funds.
He said President Tinubu subsequently directed the development of a framework allowing research and endowment accounts to be moved out of the TSA to commercial banks of choice, thereby providing greater flexibility and confidence.
Alausa expressed disappointment that many institutions had yet to fully exploit the opportunities created by the administration, warning that universities that fail to diversify their funding bases risk limiting their capacity for sustained growth, research and academic excellence.
He said the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Nigerian Higher Education Foundation (NHF), would develop a comprehensive national framework for the sustainable financing of tertiary institutions.
The framework, he said, would cover endowment governance, accountability, research grants, Advancement Office structures, alumni giving, industry partnerships, philanthropy incentives, revenue management and transparency.
He added that all public universities would be progressively onboarded into the framework, with each institution expected to build an endowment, establish an effective advancement structure, maintain a functional alumni database, strengthen research funding capacity and develop productive relationships with industry, philanthropists and other strategic partners.
No comments