The Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Prof. Tunji Olaopa, has called for a fundamental review of the legal framework governing Nigerian universities, particularly the amendment of university establishment Acts to grant institutions greater operational and academic autonomy.

Olaopa made the call on Thursday in Abuja as the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University Lokoja (FUL), Prof. Gbenga Solomon Ibileye, unveiled a range of investment opportunities in the institution, including student hostels, staff housing, technology, healthcare, agriculture and renewable energy.

The two spoke at a special convening on “University Governance and the Corporate World: Towards an ‘All-of-People’ Approach to Financing Federal University Lokoja.”

Olaopa, who chaired the event, said the existing legal and governance structure had created bottlenecks that limited universities’ capacity to mobilise resources, conduct research and respond effectively to the needs of industry and society.

He said the National Assembly, Federal Ministry of Education, National Universities Commission (NUC) and other stakeholders should work together to undertake a fundamental review of the university governance framework.

“This will entail initiating amendment to existing university establishment Acts, to grant full operational and academic autonomy to universities,” he said.

Olaopa, however, said greater autonomy must be accompanied by stronger accountability and a financing framework tied to clearly defined objectives and measurable outcomes.
He advocated an “all-of-people partnership model” that would broaden university governance beyond traditional structures centred on governing councils and senates to include industry, host communities, alumni, trade unions and other stakeholders.

The FCSC chairman also faulted the separation of strategic planning from budgeting in many universities, arguing that it often resulted in duplication, administrative silos and waste of scarce resources.

He said no new academic programme, building project or recruitment initiative should be approved unless it was aligned with a specific key performance indicator in an institution’s strategic plan.
While Olaopa canvassed legal and governance reforms, Ibileye urged the private sector to view FUL as an investment opportunity capable of generating returns rather than an institution dependent solely on government funding.

“I am here to invite you to investment, and to speak to you in the language that every serious investor understands, which is the language of returns on investment,” Ibileye said.

He added: “I am here to present Federal University Lokoja not as an institution waiting for charity, but as an institution offering opportunity: viable, high-demand business opportunities within a secure and federally backed institutional environment.”

The Vice-Chancellor said FUL, established in 2011, had grown to more than 30,000 students, with 17 faculties, a College of Postgraduate Studies and a College of Health Sciences spread across two campuses.

He said the rapid growth in student population and academic programmes had created corresponding demand for infrastructure and services that government funding alone could no longer adequately meet.

Ibileye listed purpose-built student hostels, faculty and staff accommodation, conference and hospitality facilities, commercial and mixed-use developments, research laboratories, innovation and incubation facilities, cloud and computing infrastructure, agriculture, a hospital and a solar farm among the investment opportunities.

He identified student accommodation as one of the immediate opportunities, citing the widening gap between demand and available facilities.

Under the proposed arrangements, he said investors could finance, construct and operate accommodation facilities, recover their investments during an agreed concession period and subsequently transfer the assets to the university.

The Vice-Chancellor also identified staff and faculty housing as an investment opportunity, saying decent accommodation would help the institution attract and retain academic and non-academic personnel as it expands.

He said FUL’s location in Lokoja, at the confluence of the Rivers Niger and Benue and about 200 kilometres from Abuja, offered additional commercial, hospitality and real estate opportunities.
On technology, Ibileye said the university was positioning itself for the emerging knowledge economy through programmes in Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, Data Science and Software Engineering.

He disclosed that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) had approved a Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Cyber Sciences for the university, creating opportunities for corporate investment in research laboratories, innovation hubs, computing infrastructure, scholarships, faculty development and technology commercialisation.

Ibileye said the university would operate three broad partnership models: Build-Operate-Transfer, Public-Private Partnership, and Lease and Joint Venture.

Under the Build-Operate-Transfer model, he explained that investors would finance, construct and operate projects, recover their investments during the concession period and transfer the assets to the university at the expiration of the agreement.

The PPP model, he said, would involve the university and investors sharing development responsibilities, risks and returns, while the lease and joint venture arrangement would allow investors to develop and operate projects on university land.

Ibileye assured prospective investors that the university would provide a regulated framework, clearly defined agreements, transparent risk allocation and mechanisms for investment recovery.

Olaopa said Nigeria’s funding challenge remained one of the major obstacles to the development of the university system, noting that the country’s research funding was less than 0.3 per cent of annual Gross Domestic Product, compared with an African average of 0.45 per cent and a global benchmark of about 1.7 per cent.

He advocated an alternative financing ecosystem involving government, universities, businesses, communities, alumni, philanthropists and development partners.

According to him, community-backed, equity-rooted endowment funds could be established with contributions from alumni, local enterprise networks and civil society organisations to support renewable energy, digital infrastructure and agricultural research.

He also called for the commercialisation of university research through special purpose vehicles, including technology transfer offices, science parks and campus technology incubation hubs.
Olaopa said proceeds from patented technologies, agricultural research and software solutions could be transparently shared among faculty innovators, student researchers, university endowments and private-sector co-investors and subsequently reinvested in laboratories, research projects and grants.

He further proposed tax-exempt government matching funds to de-risk the proposed “all-of-people” income-share financing model and university endowments.

Earlier, the Director of Alumni Relations and Linkages, Prof. Abel Joseph, said the initiative was designed to change the longstanding perception that funding a federal university was exclusively the responsibility of government.
Joseph said FUL’s rapid expansion had created urgent needs in infrastructure, research funding, student support and innovation, making alternative sources of financing necessary to complement government support.

He said the “All-of-People” approach recognised the shared interest of government, alumni, corporate organisations, host communities, parents and other stakeholders in the development of the university.
The initiative, he added, formed part of the university’s Vision Plan 2026–2031.

The Abuja convening brought together university officials, members of the governing council, corporate representatives, alumni, development partners and other stakeholders to examine FUL’s investment prospectus and possible partnership models