On Average, Each Nigerian University has 1,414 Students
This is really small and unhealthy that private universities account for just 5.3% of all students in Nigerian universities. And the total enrollment in the nation's universities is below 2 million. When you do the math, it means we have about 106,000 students in the private schools. In Nigeria, there are 164 universities; 42 are federal universities, 47 are state owned while 75 are privately owned. So, each private school has a total of 1,414 students. This explains why their fees are high: they need the per unit revenue to compensate for low volume.
According to Mr Rasheed, the 75 private universities in the country account for 5.31 per cent of the total enrollment in the universities across the country.
He described the situation as “unhealthy”, saying there is need for more access either by creating more universities or expanding existing ones.
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“If you look at the population of 198 million which is close to 200 million and bear in mind the total enrolment in our universities today, all the 164 universities, is slightly less than two million. It is 1.961 million, which translates to roughly 1 per cent of the population.
“One per cent of the population are in the university and I think it’s not healthy,” he said.