Number of universities in Nigeria 2023, by ownership

There are 170 universities in Nigeria. As of 2023, 79 were private, federal universities amounted to 43, while state universities were 48. Some of Nigeria's oldest universities are the University of Ibadan, the University of Nigeria, the Obafemi Awolowo University, and the University of Lagos. These four institutions were founded between the end of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1960s.

Nigeria’s biggest institutes

The National Open University of Nigeria is the largest university in Nigeria by number of students. In 2019, the number of all students enrolled reached 565 thousand. The National Open University of Nigeria is the largest open and distance learning institute on the whole African continent. It is based in Abuja but has several campuses across Nigeria.

What Nigerians study the most

There are over 1.8 million full-time undergraduate university students in Nigeria. Sciences and social sciences are the most common disciplines chosen by Nigerian students. Administration and management followed as the third most popular faculty. Among master and diploma students, however, administration and management have the largest number of students.