Kogi gets NUC nod to establish third state-owned varsity

The Kogi state government has obtained a licence from the National Universities Commission (NUC) to establish its third state-owned university.

Chris Maiyaki, the deputy executive secretary at the NUC, confirmed this to TheCable on Monday.

On Thursday, the Kogi house of assembly passed a bill for the establishment of the state’s third university.

The state, which already has Prince Abubakar Audu University in Anyigba and Confluence University of Science and Technology in Osara, decided to name the new varsity the Kogi State University.

Maiyaki said the licence to establish the new varsity in the Kabba/Bunu LGA of Kogi was presented at the NUC’s headquarters in Abuja.

“We had a one-hour ceremony for it. Education is a concurrent list, meaning that state and federal governments are at liberty to intervene in universities,” he said.

“Once the state house of assembly passes the law, we at the NUC do not control that. We grant them the licence based on the law passed at the state assembly. We only come back to discharge our regulatory functions.

“Before they start, we have to assure ourselves that they have the material resources, funding, structure, governance, and ecosystem in place for quality university education.

“But as far as the law establishing it, what we do is to confirm what the state assembly has already decided on.”