A new report by the Athena Centre for Policy and Leadership has revealed that widespread financial secrecy among Nigerian universities is severely undermining their ability to attract global research funding and maintain international credibility.
Titled “A National Embarrassment: Reforming Transparency in Nigerian Universities to Unlock Global Funding and Restore Credibility”, the report surveyed 64 universities across the six geopolitical zones and found none of them publicly disclosed their financial records. Even formal requests under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act were largely ignored, especially by federal universities. State and private institutions were reportedly even less forthcoming, often citing “lack of authorisation” as a blanket reason for withholding data.
The report described this trend as a “fundamental governance weakness” that reinforces perceptions of Nigerian universities as high-risk, unprepared partners for managing international grants. “Without significant investment in governance reform, capacity building, and the modernisation of financial reporting systems, Nigerian universities will remain trapped in a cycle of financial opacity, limited external funding, and declining global relevance,” it warned.
Speaking at the launch of the report, Osita Chidoka, Chancellor of the Athena Centre and a former Minister of Aviation, stressed that financial transparency is key to restoring trust and attracting donor partnerships. “Universities should be role models of openness, accountability, and innovation, not fortresses of secrecy,” he said.
The report benchmarked Nigerian institutions against their counterparts in Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa, highlighting that universities such as the University of Cape Town, University of Nairobi, and University of Ghana already publish detailed financial and grant data, enabling them to attract millions in funding and collaborations.
Of the 64 Nigerian institutions surveyed — comprising 30 federal, 18 state, and 16 private universities — only nine provided partial financial statements. None disclosed a full breakdown of revenues and expenditures, particularly on internally generated revenue (IGR), which many institutions heavily depend on.
The report called for sweeping reforms, including the establishment of a University Transparency and Accountability Act that would mandate all universities to publish audited financial statements, budgets, and grant utilisation reports. It proposed linking compliance with funding eligibility and accreditation, and imposing sanctions such as suspension from competitive grants or reduced subventions on non-compliant institutions.
It further recommended the creation of a Central University Transparency Portal (UTAP) — a public platform for publishing financial data, procurement processes, grant usage, and performance metrics tied to visitation panel recommendations.
Additionally, it advocated expanding the mandate of the Auditor-General of the Federation to include governance risk assessments, rather than limiting audits to minor infractions. This would help identify systemic transparency and accountability weaknesses in university governance.
The findings come amid broader government efforts to instill transparency in higher education. The Federal Ministry of Education recently ordered all federal tertiary institutions to publish budget, grant, and enrolment data online by May 31, 2025 — a move that aligns with several of the Athena Centre’s recommendations.
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