Minister Warns Institutions Against Borrowing Staff, Equipment To Secure Accreditation

Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has warned tertiary institutions against presenting borrowed academic staff, equipment and other facilities during accreditation exercises.

He said that institutions must demonstrate genuine and sustainable capacity before securing approval for academic programmes.

Alausa gave the warning in Abuja yesterday when he inaugurated the Ministerial Committee on Strengthening Accreditation and Quality Assurance Systems for Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria.

The minister said the government was determined to transform the country’s accreditation system from a periodic exercise into a continuous, digital and data-driven quality assurance mechanism capable of verifying the actual capacity of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

He said the existing system must be strengthened to make it more transparent, efficient, evidence-based and difficult to manipulate, stressing that accreditation should provide an accurate picture of an institution’s capacity to deliver quality education.

According to him, institutions should no longer be allowed to create a temporary impression of their capacity merely to satisfy an accreditation team.

“An institution should not be able to prepare a temporary picture of itself simply for the purpose of an accreditation visit. Sadly, this is what persists in the majority of instances,” Alausa said.

The minister said the government must also address the practice of temporarily moving academic and non-academic personnel to institutions for accreditation before returning them to their original institutions.

“We must similarly address the temporary movement, borrowing or presentation of equipment, laboratory facilities, workshop resources, library materials and other infrastructure solely for accreditation purposes,” he said.

Alausa also stressed that whatever an accreditation team sees and verifies during an exercise must reflect the institution’s actual and sustainable capacity.

He said the government would deploy technology to strengthen the verification of infrastructure, equipment and personnel, including geospatial mapping, geotagging and digital identification technologies.

“Critical equipment presented for accreditation should be capable of being digitally identified and linked to a specific institution and physical location. “Where appropriate, such equipment should have a unique digital record showing its location, status and other relevant information,” the minister said.

Speaking on staffing, Alausa called for a comprehensive digital identity management and staff verification framework that would enable regulators to establish the identity, presence and institutional affiliation of personnel presented by tertiary institutions.

He said the proposed system should leverage national identity infrastructure and interoperable government databases, subject to data protection laws.

Also speaking, the Director of Polytechnic Education in the Federal Ministry of Education, Amy Igwe, said the committee was expected to contribute to building a more robust, transparent and credible accreditation system.

Igwe said the initiative reflected the government’s commitment to improving the education sector and protecting the interests of Nigerian students.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has announced the release of the full Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance (CATA) to academic staff in federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education for the eight-month period from January to August 2026.

CATA is a financial allowance provided to academic staff to support the purchase of essential tools and materials required for teaching, research and other academic activities.

Speaking on the payment, Alausa said it was in accordance with the provisions of the 2025 Federal Government–Academic Staff Union of Universities (FGN/ASUU) agreement and reaffirmed the government’s commitment to its implementation.

He said, “The Office of the Minister of Education is happy to announce that the full CATA payment has now been released by the Federal Government from January to August 2026 to all universities, all polytechnics and colleges of education.

“All these institutions should have received notification to start paying CATA to all academic staff.”

The minister added that payment to non-academic staff was also being processed.

“And also, the payment to non-academic staff, we’re hoping that these funds will be made available, hopefully, in the next few weeks,” he said.

According to Alausa, the payment was another indication of President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to improving the welfare of academic and non-academic staff in the nation’s tertiary institutions