By: Sunday Ameh
The Association of Provosts of Colleges of Health Technology and Nursing Sciences has called on the Federal Government to exempt health institutions from the recently announced seven-year suspension on establishing new polytechnics and allied institutions.
The appeal was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the association’s 2025 Quadrennial Conference in Abuja and made available to journalists in Lokoja on Thursday by its Public Relations Officer, Dr. Nuhu Anyegwu.
The Federal Government had, in September, suspended the issuance of licenses for new public and private institutions for seven years, citing the need to strengthen existing ones.
But the Provosts warned that applying the ban to colleges of health technology and nursing sciences could worsen Nigeria’s healthcare crisis.
“The ban will create an intergenerational gap of at least seven years in terms of shortage of health and medical manpower in various communities in Nigeria,” the communiqué stated.
The association argued that colleges of health technology and nursing sciences should not be classified as allied institutions since they are already accredited by professional health and medical councils or boards.
The Provosts commended the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) for reforms in the accreditation process but expressed concern over what they described as multiple accreditations by professional councils.
They also faulted the exclusion of health colleges from TETFUND’s funding schedule and urged the Federal Ministry of Education and NBTE to support an amendment to the TETFUND Act to address the issue.
The Provosts re-elected Dr. Johnson Ojo as chairman and Adamu Ahmadu as secretary general, among others, and resolved to establish a journal to promote research as well as a media committee to publicise the association’s activities.
They stressed that supporting health institutions remained vital to closing Nigeria’s widening gap in healthcare delivery.
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