Nigeria's Education Crisis: Over 2 Million Candidates Registered

In April, Nigeria witnessed a troubling educational scenario as 2,243,816 candidates registered for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). Despite the increasing number of registrants, the National Universities Commission (NUC) confirmed that the country’s tertiary institutions can only absorb approximately 700,000 students annually.

This leaves a significant gap, with 1.5 million candidates preparing for the examination. The NUC recently approved 33 new universities, raising the total to 309, but many existing institutions received fewer than 100 applications for the 2025/2026 admission cycle, indicating a lack of trust in the system.

The educational landscape is further complicated by the fact that only 7% of Nigeria's workforce is employed in the formal economy, highlighting the disconnect between educational output and job market needs. The situation is exacerbated by the increasing number of secondary school leavers seeking tertiary education, projected to rise to 2.24 million by 2024, while the system remains unable to accommodate them effectively.