President Bola Tinubu Monday challenged Nigerian public universities not to depend only on funding from federal government adopt private -public financing method to augment their incomes.
He said public- private financing is the trend all over the world, which according to him, will meet the funding requirements desperately needed by universities to keep them afloat.
The president stated this in his address at the grand finale of the week long combined 37th and 38th convocation ceremonies for higher degrees of the university of Ilorin.
Represented by the Minister of State for education, Dr Yusuf Sununu , the visitor said “It was in realisation of this that the federal government signed into law the students ‘s loan which will positively change the landscape of education in Nigeria.
“I call on corporate bodies, communities and individuals to support our universities. The practice all over the world is that public universities benefit heavily from government funding but also augment their income through private financing. A popular method is endowment. Assets are donated to them to generate investment income. Other methods of financing are tuition fees.
“Public- Private financing is the trend all over the world. With the right- mix of public and private financing, Nigerian universities can get the required resources they desperately need to elevate the level of university education in the country.”
