APC credits Tinubu with N372bn student loans, education reforms

President Bola Tinubu’s education reforms have seen the Federal Government disburse N372.62bn in student loans, enrol more than 156,000 Nigerians in technical and vocational training and secure $552m in funding for basic education, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council has said.

The council said the interventions had also returned more than one million out-of-school children to learning, expanded access to secondary education for girls and improved teachers’ professional development.

The spokesperson for the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Dele Alake, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday, while assessing the achievements of the Tinubu administration in the education sector.

According to the statement, the achievements were outlined in the Federal Ministry of Education’s Nigerian Education Sector Renewal Initiative 2026 report, which covers interventions in basic, secondary, technical and tertiary education.

The council said, “The reforms were concentrated on six priority areas: technical and vocational education, science and medical sciences, out-of-school children, girl-child education, digitalisation and education quality assurance.”

On tertiary education financing, the statement said: “The Nigerian Education Loan Fund had disbursed N372.62bn to students across 319 tertiary institutions.”

It gave a breakdown of the disbursement as N192.89bn for tuition and institutional fees and N179.73bn for students’ upkeep allowances.

The council said the fund had processed 1,659,853 student loan applications, describing the scheme as one of the administration’s major interventions to reduce financial barriers to higher education.

NELFUND’s October 30 disbursement report separately put the number of beneficiaries at 1,659,853, while total applications received since the portal opened in May 2024 stood at 2,330,263.

The council also highlighted the Federal Government’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training programme, saying it had “attracted more than 2.8 million applications, with 156,446 verified trainees receiving free training, monthly stipends and start-up support.”

It said over N65.7bn had been disbursed to trainees, while another N30.2bn had been paid to training centres.

The government, according to the statement, had also rehabilitated 38 technical colleges and introduced free technical education covering tuition, boarding, textbooks and uniforms.

On basic education, the APC council said the government had secured $552m for the Human Capital Opportunities for Prosperity and Equity for Quality Basic Education for All programme, popularly known as HOPE-EDU.

The programme is designed to reach 29 million children, support more than 500,000 teachers and cover 65,000 public schools.

The funding, backed by the World Bank and the Global Partnership for Education, is intended to improve foundational learning, expand school access and strengthen education delivery across participating states.

The statement further said the Better Education Service Delivery for All programme had returned more than one million out-of-school children to learning, trained 1,400 Tsangaya teachers and established 200 bilingual centres across 17 northern states.

It added that the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment programme had reached 7.19 million girls, with 3.7 million enrolled in secondary schools, while more than 10,000 schools had benefited from improved facilities.

On curriculum reform, the council said the administration had introduced a revised national curriculum that reintroduced Nigerian History and strengthened Civic and Heritage Studies.

It also said the National Learning Assessment had been restored to monitor pupils’ academic performance and identify learning gaps.

The statement added that “53,553 teachers had registered under the EduRevamp initiative, while 51,794 participated in the first cohort of the Accelerated Teacher Professionalisation Pathway, a six-month programme offering professional qualifications, certification and licensing.”

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With N2bn backing, the programme is targeting 250,000 teachers by 2027.

The council also cited the Inspire Live initiative, which provides online lessons for pupils from Primary One to Senior Secondary School Three, supported by certified teachers and artificial intelligence-assisted learning.

On the welfare of university lecturers, the statement said the administration had resolved the longstanding dispute between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities and implemented an agreement providing a 40 per cent increase in academic staff remuneration and improved welfare benefits.

It added that the Tertiary Institutions Staff Support Fund had disbursed “N28bn to 15,000 workers across 153 public tertiary institutions, providing eligible employees with loans of up to N10m for housing, healthcare, transportation and education.”

The APC council also highlighted investments in medical and science education, saying the Federal Government was spending N110bn on the rehabilitation of 18 federal medical schools across the six geopolitical zones.

It said nursing enrolment increased from 81,480 in 2023 to 114,300 in 2025, while 20 science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine-focused tertiary institutions had been approved.

Twelve engineering and technology faculties are also expected to benefit from rehabilitation.

On research and innovation, the statement said the government had provided N365m annually for research through the National Laureate Prize, while the Student Venture Capital Grant had disbursed more than N2.5bn to 45 student entrepreneurs.

Each beneficiary, it said, could access up to N50m in equity-free funding.

Entrepreneurship certification was also ongoing in 14 federal universities, while the Diaspora BRIDGE initiative had registered 1,141 Nigerian experts abroad, reaching 16,675 students across 107 tertiary institutions.

The statement further said the Federal Government had allocated N3.52tn to education in the 2026 budget, describing it as a reflection of the administration’s commitment to improving access to quality education.

Nigeria’s education sector continues to face significant challenges, including inadequate infrastructure, poor learning outcomes, teacher shortages and a large population of children outside the formal education system.

The World Bank-backed HOPE-EDU programme identifies 14.8 million Nigerian children aged five to 14 as being out of school, with 95 per cent of them concentrated in the northern part of the country.

It also estimates that 45.8 million children in the age group cannot read and understand a simple text.

The government’s interventions also come amid concerns over the affordability of tertiary education, following increases in the cost of tuition, accommodation, transportation and other essential expenses confronting students and their families.

The APC council said the administration’s reforms were designed to address these challenges through expanded funding, improved access to education, technical skills development and better welfare for education workers.

Commenting on the achievements, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the success of the reforms should be measured by their impact on learners, teachers and institutions rather than the amount of money allocated to the sector.

“Our measure of success is not merely the amount of money allocated to education or the number of programmes introduced. It is the difference these interventions make in the lives of our children, students, teachers and institutions,” Alausa was quoted as saying.

The council also said the reforms had contributed to stabilising academic activities and the calendar across tertiary institutions.

Alake maintained that the interventions reflected the administration’s commitment to repositioning education as a tool for national development, economic growth and employment generation.