The National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) has uncovered and shut down 22 unaccredited colleges of education operating across the country, in what it described as part of a sweeping crackdown on illegal tertiary institutions.
The commission revealed the closures in a summary of recent achievements, noting that the operation also involved personnel audits and financial monitoring across all 21 federal colleges of education.
The action follows a directive from President Bola Tinubu, who earlier this year called on federal regulators to intensify efforts against what he labelled “certificate ”millers”—institutions selling unearned qualifications and eroding confidence in Nigeria’s academic system.
Speaking at the National Open University of Nigeria’s 14th convocation in Abuja, Tinubu—represented by Rakiya Ilyasu, Director of University Education at the Federal Ministry of Education—said the integrity of the higher education system “must not be compromised.”
“The National Youth Service Corps, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, the National Universities Commission, the National Board for Technical Education, and the National Commission for Colleges of Education are working in alignment to improve the quality of education,” he said, pledging that cases of forgery and unrecognised institutions “both within and outside the country” would be stamped out.
Education analysts warn that illegal colleges, often operating in makeshift buildings without accreditation, have proliferated in recent years as demand for certificates has outstripped the state’s capacity to expand access to legitimate higher education. The closures mark one of the most visible interventions yet, but experts say sustained enforcement and wider reforms are needed if the problem is to be contained.
