The federal government injected N10.1b billion into the education sector during the last quarter of 2025.
A breakdown of the expenses showed that a N50 million grant initiative, facilitated through a partnership between the federal government and Bank of Industry (BoI) was provided to enhance capacity building opportunities to students in tertiary education through the Student Venture Capital Grant (S-VCG).
During the quarter under review, N2.97 billion in stipends was disbursed to 160,000 vocational students and N4.6 billion was provided to improve skills training centres under the TVET programme.
In bid to ease menstrual pain, the federal government launched a N2.55b menstrual health campaign to deliver over 1million pads to N370,000 girls from rural and underserved areas.
Speaking on the government interventions during the last quarter, the Minister of Education, Dr. Olatunji Alausa stressed that the financial support was a commitment to improve literacy in the education sector.
He highlighted the six-point agenda under the Nigerian Educational Sector Renewed Initiative (NESRI), saying it is focused on moving the country from a resource-based to a knowledge-based economy.
“The strategic goal of the six-point agenda is to reduce out-of-school children, learning poverty and increase skills and human capital for the labour market,” he said.
He expressed the federal government’s commitment to safety in schools, saying the ministry is establishing a school safety department to support the security framework and infrastructure of all schools in the country.
He also disclosed that the security agencies are working round the clock to boost safety and security across all schools in Nigeria, saying the government is recording remarkable successes in the ongoing offensive against insurgents.
“The federal ministry of education partners with National Security for Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC) to improve the security and safety of our schools via a real-time tracking system for school safety. The NSCDC’s newly unveiled platform currently has 15,000 schools registered and has received data on 141,000 geolocated schools from the FME’s d-nemis platform,” he said.
He emphasised that the federal government has improved welfare, citing the 40 percent upward review of academic emolument, revised salary structure comprising of CONUASS and CATA under the new agreement signed with the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
According to him, while it took 20 years to implement the agreement with ASUU, it is a thing of joy that after rigorous negotiation, the agreement has been implemented and members of ASUU are happy with the present government.
“It took 20 years to resolve and we have resolved the issues holistically,” he said, adding, “We are retooling TETFUND (The Tertiary Education Trust Fund). No more construction of senate buildings.”
In a bid to cushion the hike of transportation and shortage of power supply, the minister said the federal government introduced an intervention, distributing 240 electric tricycles and 12 solar powered charging stations to 12 universities.
He added that 8,000 teachers would benefit the zero-rated internet access under the Education Public-Private (ePPP) framework.
“Through UBEC, federal ministry of education deployed over 1000 smart boards to Federal and State Basic Education schools nationwide to help equip teachers and students with future ready skills,” he said.
