The Federal Ministry of Education has announced a strategic partnership with the Athena Centre for Policy and Leadership to track institutional transparency and strengthen governance accountability across universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
The partnership, unveiled via a statement by the Ministry on May 1st, is part of a broader reform agenda led by the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Olatunji Alausa which aims to build directly on the findings of the Athena Centre’s recent University Transparency Survey, which exposed widespread failures in financial disclosure and governance standards among Nigerian universities.
A central feature of the collaboration is the launch of a digital compliance-tracking platform that will publicly monitor whether institutions meet the Minister’s directive to publish financial and institutional data by the May 31, 2025 deadline.
The platform will provide real-time data accessible to students, parents, researchers, alumni, and development partners.
“The Athena Centre is pleased to accept this invitation to collaborate, and we commend the Honourable Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Olatunji Alausa, for his commitment to institutional reform. This is a bold and much-needed move that signals that the Ministry is serious about restoring integrity to Nigeria’s higher education governance,” read a statement by the Centre’s Media Adviser, Aliyu Jalal.
“We are happy that our Athena Governance Insight report, which revealed widespread failures in university transparency, has informed and influenced this important national conversation and set pathways for reform.”
Another major component of the partnership is the establishment of the University Transparency Index—a first-of-its-kind benchmarking tool that will assess institutions based on audit compliance, financial openness, and governance practices.
According to the Centre, the Index will “reward credible leadership, stimulate healthy competition, and reposition Nigerian universities for global relevance.”
Athena Centre’s founder and former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, described the initiative as “a landmark opportunity to move from diagnosis to reform.”
Chidoka praised the Ministry for “choosing collaboration over defensiveness and transparency over opacity,” and pledged that the Centre would bring “rigour and independence” to the effort.
The Centre will also provide technical assistance to institutions, including support for bursars and ICT heads in implementing open financial portals and adopting international reporting frameworks such as the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Training programmes are being developed to equip these officials with the tools necessary for transparent management and reporting.
In its earlier Athena Governance Insight report published in February, the Centre surveyed 64 universities and found that none had published their budgets, and many also ignored Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, contributing to a culture of secrecy that, the report argued, undermines access to global research funding and damages international credibility.
