The unprecedented number of secondary school leavers who wish to further their education keeps increasing annually.

This abnormal increment has become a major challenge to Nigerian government as there are no enough universities to absorb all Nigerians who wish to wish to gain admission into the university.

Hence, the introduction of private universities in Nigeria. Admission into private universities is not as rigorous as that of government school as things are made a lot easier to encourage admission seekers.

Private universities in Nigeria are great citadel of learning as many of them have good infrastructure better than the government school.

To make admission into these schools even easier, some private universities admit candidates with UTME (Unified Tertiary Matriculation Exam) scores less than 200 (which is a national minimum score) all in a bid to populate new departments in their schools and gain NUC (National University Commission) accreditation especially when new departments have just been created.

Regardless of all these efforts made by the schools to make admission easy for Nigerian university hopefuls, the greatest challenge facing most of these people is the cost of studying in these schools.

Are you interested in going to private universities but you are discouraged by exorbitant school fees? In this piece, I will reveal the cheapest private universities in Nigeria to enable my readers who fall into that category of Nigerians make good decisions.

Cheapest Private Universities in Nigeria

Now let us critically examine cheapest Nigerian private Universities fully approved by NUC by comparing their tuitions.

1. Oduduwa University, Ile Ife: N164,000
2. Obong University, Obong Ntak : N170,000 to 190,000
3. Rhema University, Aba: N313,000 to N325,000
4. Babcock University, Ilishan: N340,000 to N620,000
5. Adeleke University, Ede: N350,000
6. Covenant University, Ota: N432,000 to N590,000
7. Crawford University, Igbesa: N450,000 to N480,000
8. Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Ikeji-Arakeji: N500,000
9. Ajayi Crowther University, Abeokuta: N500,000
10. Lead City University, Ibadan: N570,000

Note that all schools tuition are subject to constant changes and they vary from department to department.

Even though private universities have helped reduce the number of people seeking admission into Nigerian universities, but a lot still needs to be done in the area of approving more private universities and Federal Government assisting in subsiding the fees charged by private universities to enable most Nigerians afford it.

Yes, Federal universities are very affordable to ordinary Nigerians today because Federal Government is paying very high subsidy on university education.

Most federal universities charge less than 100,000 for first degree programs. The list above is on cheapest Nigerian private universities and many other universities may exist which may appear cheaper but have approval issues.

Note that attending a private university with NUC approval is tantamount to waste of time as graduates churned out by these schools will not be recognized by NYSC (National Youth Service Corps) and consequently, they will not be mobilized for the mandatory national service.

Also, note that you won’t be able to work in many government and private establishments without participating in NYSC. So, if you have many issues gaining admission into government schools, I think it is better you study in one of the cheapest Nigerian private universities instead of travelling abroad to study.

This is because you will contribute to the growth of these schools instead of spending all your hard-earned money abroad (probably Ghana, Benin Republic or South Africa), and coming back home to look for jobs as most Nigerians do. But refer to JAMB brochure to make sure the course of your choice is accredited before choosing that school. Also see the steps to check your JAMB result online.