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With just a week to the deadline set by the Minister of Education, only seven of 195 federal tertiary institutions in Nigeria have complied with a directive to publish their financial and institutional data, the Athena Centre for Policy and Leadership has revealed.
The centre, which partnered the Ministry of Education to monitor compliance of the institutions, has also created a live-tracker for members of the public to see which institutions have complied.
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The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, had directed federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education to publish comprehensive data on students enrolment, grants, Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) including federal allocations by 31 May.
Mr Alausa emphasised that the information be presented in a clear, accessible, and user-friendly format for public visibility.
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In a statement by its communications advisor on Thursday, Aliyu Jalal, the Athena centre raised concern over the low compliance levels despite the deadline being only a week away.
According to the Chancellor of the Athena Centre, Osita Chidoka, the directive is a test of leadership for the institutions. “Institutions must choose: transparency or shame,” the statement quoted him as saying.
“With eight days left, the Athena Centre calls on university vice chancellors, rectors, and provosts to act swiftly. Compliance is beyond the minister’s directive; it is an obligation to the Nigerian public,” the statement said.
“The countdown to 31 May is not a technical deadline. It is a moment of reckoning. Institutions that fail to comply will be named and remembered.”
Findings
The centre said most of the institutions are yet to publish the required data on their websites. Some who did published inadequate information.
The statement said only the University of Lagos stood out positively for publishing consolidated financial statements from 2016 to 2023.
It explained that only four out of 64 federal universities, three out of 41 federal polytechnics and none of the 90 federal monotechnics have uploaded their students and financial information.
“Many university websites include ‘Financial Reports’ tabs that are blank or inaccessible,” the centre said.
It noted, for instance, that Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, published vague information on endowment projects without stating funds received or spent.
The Federal Polytechnic, Ayede uploaded a generic national budget document, not an institution-specific report, it said.
It added that the University of Ilorin omitted data on the postgraduate student population, indicating incomplete reporting.
“Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, shared outdated audits from 2018–2022, with no current updates. Federal University Gusau, Zamfara only posted undergraduate enrollment figures without financial disclosures,” it stated.
“This poor showing may indicate administrative incompetence or a structured resistance to transparency. In either case, it undercuts the credibility of our tertiary institutions, which are meant to model integrity, and challenges the government’s vision of a transparent, inclusive, and accountable education system.”
The live tracker is available at: (https://lnk.athenacentre.org/43mSk0w).
Background
The minister’s directive which he said was to foster transparency in the tertiary institutions followed a report by the Athena Centre which revealed that Nigerian institutions struggle to attract global grants due to their lack of financial transparency.
The report found that none of the surveyed institutions had published their budgets, and many also ignored Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, noting it contributes to a culture of secrecy that “undermines access to global research funding and damages international credibility.”
Shortly after the survey was made public, the education minister Mr Alausa directed all the tertiary institutions to publish their annual financial statements including revenue generated internally and allocations received as well as data on student population.
