Tertiary Institutions Fail to Comply with Disclosure of Financial, Institutional Data on Website
Despite a May 31 deadline, 70 out of 72 federal tertiary institutions have failed to fully comply with a federal government directive to disclose key financial and institutional data on their websites.
The order, aimed at promoting transparency and accountability in the tertiary education sub-sector, requires institutions to publish information such as yearly budgetary allocation, research grants, revenue, and student population.
According to an investigation, only two institutions, the University of Benin (UNIBEN) and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi (ATBU), have fully complied with the directive.
Three institutions, including the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Bayero University, Kano (BUK), and Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun (FUPRE), have substantially complied, while 22 institutions have partially complied.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, had directed that the data be published on the institutions’ websites on or before May 31, with failure to comply risking zero funding.
The move is seen as a critical step in improving good governance and standards in federal institutions.
Industry stakeholders believe that the directive is part of the government’s efforts to promote accountability and university autonomy, attract potential investors, secure vital funding, and boost competitiveness among public tertiary institutions.
The move is also in line with global best practices, where sharing financial records online is the norm.
However, findings have revealed that there is low compliance with such directives in Nigeria, with managers of most federal universities thriving in data secrecy.
The investigation categorized the 41 sampled federal universities into four levels of compliance: fully complied, substantially complied, partially complied, and zero compliance.
The University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), and Federal University of Technology, Minna (FUTMINNA) are among the 14 institutions with zero compliance.
Other institutions, including the University of Ibadan (UI), University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), and Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), have partially complied.
Stakeholders have called for a deadline extension to give institutions more time to implement the order, citing weak Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure as a major challenge.
The Executive Secretary, National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Prof. Idris Bugaje, lamented that most institutions are digitally backward and lack the needed infrastructure to upload the required data.
Reacting to the development, spokespersons of some institutions, including UNIABUJA, UNIPORT, and FUTA, promised to upload the required data on their websites.
However, efforts to get reactions from spokespersons of UI and OAU proved abortive.
The federal government has hinted at sanctions that await institutions that fail to comply, with the Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono, warning that institutions that fail to meet performance benchmarks or mismanage allocated funds risk being defunded.
As the deadline has passed, it remains to be seen how the federal government will enforce the directive and what sanctions will be imposed on non-compliant institutions.
The development has sparked concerns about the commitment of federal institutions to transparency and accountability, and the impact on the tertiary education sub-sector.
