FG upgrades Nasarawa Poly to mining university

President Tinubu has approved the upgrade of Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, to the Federal University of Mining, Engineering and Technology to strengthen technical education and mining sector developm

President Bola Tinubu has approved the upgrade of the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, to the Federal University of Mining, Engineering and Technology. The move aligns with the administration’s commitment to strengthening technical education and unlocking Nigeria’s solid minerals potential.

The conversion represents a significant shift in the institution’s focus, positioning it as a specialised university dedicated to mining, engineering and technology. The decision reflects the government’s broader strategy to develop the solid minerals sector as an alternative revenue source to oil.

For decades, Nigeria has exported raw minerals while importing finished products. The university is expected to produce the skilled workforce needed to reverse that trend, training engineers, geologists and technicians who can drive local processing and value addition.

This echoes the 1980s establishment of the Federal University of Technology system, which was designed to produce technical graduates to drive Nigeria’s industrialisation. The mechanism then was different, but the result was the same: a government betting on technical education to drive economic transformation.

The winners: students who will benefit from specialised training; the solid minerals sector, which gains a pipeline of skilled workers; and the Nigerian economy, which moves closer to value addition. The losers: other polytechnics that have not been upgraded, and the Nigerian education system, which still lacks a coherent strategy for technical education.

Bottom Line: Nasarawa Poly is now a mining university. That is good for the solid minerals sector. The question is whether the government will fund it properly or let it join the long list of underfunded federal universities.