The Federal Government has said it has committed more than ₦1 trillion to the transformation of Nigeria’s tertiary education sector in the last two years, while declaring that no qualified Nigerian would henceforth be denied access to higher education on account of financial hardship.
Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Alausa, who disclosed this in Abuja, said President Bola Tinubu’s administration has deliberately dismantled the financial barriers that have for decades prevented many indigent but qualified Nigerians from pursuing university education.
Speaking during a meeting with members of the National Committee for the Advancement of Occupational Therapy, Audiology and Speech and Language Therapy Education, Alausa said the administration’s investments represent one of the most ambitious interventions in Nigeria’s tertiary education history.
According to him, the government’s education reforms were not only expanding access to higher education but were also repositioning universities, polytechnics and colleges of education to produce graduates equipped with the knowledge, technical skills and practical competencies required to drive national development.
He said: “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.
“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.”
The Minister disclosed that the Federal Government has invested ₦250 billion in the construction of new student hostels across tertiary institutions to improve accommodation and create a more conducive learning environment.
He further revealed that over ₦150 billion has been committed to the rehabilitation of existing hostels, classrooms, engineering workshops and other academic facilities to strengthen teaching, learning and research nationwide.
On medical education, Alausa said the government has invested more than ₦130 billion in rehabilitating medical schools and expanding their training capacity.
He also announced that ₦52 billion has been approved for the procurement of modern equipment for 18 medical schools, while nearly ₦30 billion has been invested in establishing 11 state-of-the-art medical simulation laboratories to improve practical clinical training.
According to the Minister, engineering education has equally received a major boost, with almost ₦110 billion invested in the construction and rehabilitation of engineering workshops and the provision of modern equipment for Federal Universities of Technology, conventional universities offering engineering programmes and polytechnics.
Alausa said the interventions extend beyond physical infrastructure to strengthening institutional capacity, expanding specialised laboratories and workshops, and improving the overall quality of teaching, learning and research.
Describing the scale of the investments as unprecedented, he said: “This is amazing. This is just mind-boggling what this President has done in rapidly transforming tertiary education.”
He stressed that the investments would ultimately produce graduates capable of driving innovation, industrialisation and sustainable economic growth.
“These investments are repositioning our tertiary institutions to produce graduates with the knowledge, technical skills and practical competencies required to drive innovation, industrialisation and long-term economic transformation,” he said.
The Minister assured Nigerians that the Federal Government remains committed to ensuring that every qualified student has access to higher education irrespective of economic circumstances.
“No qualified student will be denied access to higher education because of financial hardship,” Alausa declared, adding that the Ministry would continue working with tertiary institutions and relevant stakeholders to translate the ongoing reforms into improved educational outcomes and stronger institutions.
Earlier, Chairman of the National Committee for the Advancement of Occupational Therapy, Audiology and Speech and Language Therapy Education, Dr. Victoria Amu, briefed the Minister on the committee’s progress since its inauguration.
She said the committee had developed a comprehensive one-year implementation plan with clear timelines and performance indicators, established a governance framework comprising quarterly physical meetings and monthly virtual engagements, and constituted three specialised sub-committees covering advocacy and communication, academic liaison and clinical training, as well as manpower development and transition pathways.
Amu disclosed that a baseline assessment showed that six Nigerian universities currently offer Audiology programmes, five offer Occupational Therapy programmes, while three universities run Speech and Language Therapy programmes.
She added that the committee had commenced consultations with the National Universities Commission (NUC), the Medical Rehabilitation Therapists Registration Board of Nigeria (MRTB), universities, professional associations and private tertiary institutions.
According to her, the University of Benin would commence Occupational Therapy training in the 2026/2027 academic session, further expanding access to the programme across the country.
She, however, identified delays in the release of TETFund support as the major challenge affecting the committee’s implementation activities.