National President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Bishop Francis Wale Oke, has called on the Federal Government to support private universities via Tertiary Education Trust Funds {TETFund}, saying it is expensive to run universities.

According to Oke, who is a chancellor of a private university, no university in the country gives returns to its owners and proprietors in the first 10 years.

He made the call while speaking at the official unveiling of the university, ZOE University, Ìpàpó, Oyo State, at Jogor Centre, Ibadan.

He added that anyone looking for quick profit would not get it through a private university venture.

The President of The Sword of The Spirit Ministries International said: ‘’Private university education is an investment into the future of our youths. There is no private university that begins to give returns to the owner or proprietors for the first 10 years.  It is a long-term investment.

It is very expensive to operate private universities.  Anyone looking for quick money cannot get it from a private university. It is about passion for the youths.   We should begin to look at it from a different light.

‘’The Federal Government needs to support private universities. The TETFund provision should be extended to private universities. They should be supported. The children are citizens of Nigeria and bona fide Nigerians. They need to be supported.’’

The bishop explained that over two million youths qualify for admission into tertiary institutions yearly but the carriage capacity of all the universities in the country was less than one million, hence the need to take the remnants off the street.

On his part, the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, who was represented by the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Salihu Adelabu, expressed the readiness of his government to partner individuals and organisations with good initiatives to improve the educational sector.

Makinde, who lauded the proposed Zoe University in Oyo State, noted that the Oke-Ogun zone could now boast of the first private university, adding that the initiative would attract rapid development to the zone.

“Establishing a private university is like draining your pocket to develop the brains of the younger generation in society because it is not profit-making. The greatest legacy you can bequeath in society, humanity, on our youths and children is nothing but sound and qualitative education. You don’t need any rocket science that somebody looking for money would now go and set up a university in Ìpàpó, we have places like Abuja, we have places like Lagos, but going back to Ìpàpó truly is a divine decision,” he said.

The visioner of the University, Dr. Bamidele Ayanlowo, explained that the university aimed at grooming Nigerian youths through skills to discourage unemployment and reliance on certificates, amongst university graduates.