Sundiata Post: How Private Equity Funds Could Change Education Funding

Funding education is capital intensive and profits are often not expected in the first decade of an educational institutions existence, making it necessary to explore novel models of funding such as long-term private equity investment. For instance the average wage bill of a medium-sized private university per annum is about N500 million.

Setting up a well-equipped electronic engineering department costs about N80 million and profit is strictly a game of numbers. It takes at least a decade to have the number of students needed to break even. Moves by private equity firms in Angola and Ghana are pointing to ways of dealing with these funding challenges. On Monday, no fewer than 38 universities across the country increased their tuition fees as a result of poor funding by the Federal and State governments. Deji Omole, chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Ibadan Chapter, made this known in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja on Monday.

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