Located in Badagry, Lagos State, the centre is an autonomous federal tertiary institution regulated by the Nigerian National Universities Commission.
[1] Established in 1991, the centre provides language immersion and acculturation programmes for students of French studies across Nigerian tertiary institutions, including universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
The centre was established as a domestic alternative to the erstwhile mandatory foreign-based year-abroad component of bachelor's degree programmes in Nigerian universities.
The idea of the Nigeria French Language Village was conceived by former Nigerian Minister of Education, Jubril Aminu.
[4] The incumbent Director and chief executive officer of the institution is Lateef Babatunde Ayeleru, a Nigerian professor of French, Applied Linguistics and African Literature at the University of Ibadan.