Federal Executive Council approved the issuance of provisional licences for the establishment of 12 private universities.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, stated this while briefing State House correspondents on behalf of the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu.
He said the proposed universities would be situated in Gombe, Maiduguri, 2 in Delta, 2 in Kano, 2 in Sokoto, Abia, Anambra, and Abuja.
The Minister explained that each of the proposed universities would be mentored by older universities close to it.
He argued that establishment of additional universities for an over 200 million-populated country was necessary if the policy of educating a larger percentage of youngsters was to succeed.
Similarly, FEC gave approval to the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, to revise the estimated total cost of the contract for the extention of the inner southern expressway, from the outer southern expressway to the southern parkway.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who stood in for the Minister of the FCT, said the augmentation was in the sum of about 1.4 billion Naira.
He explained that the augmentation would raise the contract sum from over 17 billion Naira to over 18.5 billion Naira, to be completed in 12 months.
BELLO WAKILI