No qualified Nigerian will miss higher education over poverty, FG assures

The Federal Government has assured Nigerians that no qualified student will be denied access to higher education because of financial hardship, saying President Bola Tinubu’s administration has removed financial barriers to tertiary education through student-focused reforms and over ₦1 trillion in investments across universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, gave the assurance during a meeting with members of the National Committee for the Advancement of Occupational Therapy, Audiology and Speech and Language Therapy Education.

According to a statement released on Tuesday by the Special Adviser to the Minister on Media and Communications, Ikharo Attah, the minister said the administration was committed to ensuring that every qualified Nigerian, regardless of economic background, had access to quality higher education.

Alausa said President Tinubu had prioritised human capital development by introducing policies that have eliminated financial obstacles that previously prevented many young Nigerians from pursuing tertiary education.

“This President, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has opened up access to students so that not having money, or coming from an indigent family, or your parents being poor, will no longer stop you from achieving the opportunities you can achieve in life. Education is no longer a barrier for students in this country,” he said.

The minister added that the President’s reforms were aimed at empowering young Nigerians to contribute meaningfully to national development.

“We thank President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for believing in the youth of this country and giving them all the opportunities for them to excel, to be useful to themselves, to be useful to their communities, to be useful to the country and to the global world at large,” Alausa said.

He explained that beyond expanding access, the Federal Government had backed its commitment with unprecedented investments exceeding ₦1 trillion in the tertiary education sector over the past two years.

According to him, ₦250 billion has been committed to constructing new student hostels across tertiary institutions, while over ₦150 billion has been invested in rehabilitating existing hostels, classrooms, engineering workshops and other academic facilities.

The minister further disclosed that more than ₦130 billion had been invested in rehabilitating medical schools and expanding their training capacity nationwide.

He said another ₦52 billion had been approved for modern equipment in 18 medical schools, while nearly ₦30 billion was invested in establishing 11 state-of-the-art medical simulation laboratories to strengthen practical clinical training.

To boost engineering education, Alausa said the Federal Government had also invested almost ₦110 billion in constructing and rehabilitating engineering workshops and providing modern equipment for federal universities of technology, conventional universities offering engineering programmes and polytechnics.
Describing the interventions as among the largest investments in Nigeria’s tertiary education history, he said they covered new infrastructure, rehabilitation of facilities, procurement of modern equipment, expansion of specialised laboratories and workshops, and strengthening institutional capacity for teaching, learning and research.

“This is amazing. This is just mind-boggling what this President has done in rapidly transforming tertiary education,” the minister said.

He added that the investments would enable tertiary institutions to produce graduates equipped with the knowledge, technical skills and practical competencies needed to drive innovation, industrialisation and long-term economic growth.

Alausa reaffirmed the ministry’s commitment to working with tertiary institutions and other stakeholders to ensure the reforms translate into improved educational outcomes, stronger institutions and greater opportunities for Nigerian students.

During the meeting, the Chairman of the National Committee for the Advancement of Occupational Therapy, Audiology and Speech and Language Therapy Education, Dr. Victoria Omua Amu, briefed the minister on the committee’s activities.

She said the committee had developed a one-year implementation work plan, established a governance framework and set up specialised subcommittees to advance advocacy, academic collaboration and manpower development.

Amu disclosed that six Nigerian universities currently offer Audiology programmes, five offer Occupational Therapy programmes and three offer Speech and Language Therapy programmes, adding that the University of Benin would commence an Occupational Therapy programme in the 2026/2027 academic session.

She, however, identified delays in the release of TETFund support as a major challenge affecting implementation.

The Federal Government has made expanding access to higher education a key component of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda. In the past year, it has rolled out the Nigerian Education Loan Fund to provide interest-free loans to eligible students, while significantly increasing investment in tertiary education infrastructure through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund. The administration has also prioritised the rehabilitation of medical schools, engineering workshops, student hostels and other learning facilities to improve the quality of teaching, research and innovation across Nigeria’s universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.