Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, says the number of universities in Nigeria cannot meet the present demand for higher education in the country.

He said this in Abuja while presenting operational licences for two new universities to Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, bringing the total number of universities in the country to 205.

He said despite the increasing number of private universities in Nigeria, they could only account for 5.06 per cent of students in the nation’s ivory towers, leaving the remaining 94 per cent in public universities.

Justifying NUC’s decision to approve the University of Education, Ijanikin/Epe and the Lagos State University of Science and Technology, Rasheed said Lagos had been exceptional in the running of the Lagos State University for the past 39 years.

Earlier, Sanwo-Olu had said the new universities would provide massive opportunities for those seeking university education in the state