…Says Nigeria’s education budget jumps to ₦3.52trn under Tinubu
…As 450,000 students get NELFUND in 218 tertiary institutions
Vice President Kashim Shettima has called for more private sector investments in education, saying that “out-of-school children in Nigeria now pose a national emergency.”
Stanley Nkwocha, Spokesman for the Vice President, in a statement, said Shettima stated this on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to the statement, the Vice President lamented that the “number of out-of-school children in the country constitutes a national emergency,” calling for collaboration between government and private sector stakeholders to address the problem.
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The Vice President, while speaking on the current administration’s investment in the education sector, disclosed that Nigeria’s education budget has jumped to ₦3.52 trillion in 2025 under President Bola Tinubu’s administration, from the paltry ₦1.54 trillion in 2023.
Represented by the Special Adviser to the President on General Duties (Office of the Vice President) at the opening of the 2025 Nigeria Education Forum in Abuja, Shettima noted that education spending under President Tinubu reflects the administration’s unwavering commitment to building an enlightened and globally competitive population.
The forum, organised by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, the Federal Ministry of Education, and the Committee of States’ Commissioners of Education, focused on the theme “Pathways to Sustainable Education Financing: Developing a Synergy Between Town and Gown in Nigeria.”
“Nothing threatens a civilisation more than an uneducated generation. Nations rise when the people, regardless of circumstance, are equipped with the knowledge to imagine a better future and the skills to build it,” Shettima said.
The Vice President emphasised that Nigeria has reached a critical inflection point where traditional government-only funding models can no longer sustain the country’s educational needs. He called for a fundamental shift toward collaborative, innovative, and resilient financing mechanisms.
According to him, “The burden cannot rest on government alone. We must enlist private sector actors, industry leaders, alumni networks, philanthropists, and communities to co-invest in laboratories, research centres, vocational hubs, innovation clusters, and endowment funds.”
He detailed substantial increases across key education funding agencies under the President Tinubu administration’s Renewed Hope plan, where, for example, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) budget grew from ₦320.3 billion in 2023 to ₦683.4 billion in 2024, and now stands at ₦1.6 trillion in 2025.
The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has distributed ₦92.4 billion in matching grants to 25 states and the Federal Capital Territory. Another ₦19 billion has supported teacher development across 32 states and the FCT, while ₦1.5 billion has reached more than 1,147 communities.
Individual state UBE grants have increased from approximately ₦1.3 billion to over ₦3.3 billion, allowing states to access more than ₦6.6 billion through counterpart funding arrangements.
The newly created Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), established under the Student Loans Act of 2024, has already disbursed ₦86.3 billion to over 450,000 students in 218 tertiary institutions nationwide.
He opined that the fund signals a new era where no Nigerian is denied tertiary education for lack of money.
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“The learning crisis cannot help without safe and well-equipped schools, from basic classrooms to technical laboratories. Teachers must enjoy adequate training, welfare, and professional recognition if they are to deliver the outcomes our children deserve,” he said.
He called for deliberate collaboration across federal, state, and local government levels, emphasising the importance of prompt counterpart funding, transparent utilisation of resources, and strict adherence to action plans.
“Since education begins in the community, local governments and traditional institutions must take responsibility for infrastructure development, school maintenance, security, and teacher welfare,” he said.
“We are here today because we do not treat education as just a line item in the national budget. We treat it as the foundation of our national identity, the engine of our economic transformation, and the shield of our collective security,” Shettima added.
