The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council has credited President Bola Tinubu’s administration with disbursing N372.62bn in student loans, expanding technical and vocational education and securing $552m in funding for basic education reforms.
The council said the interventions were part of efforts to improve access to education, address the out-of-school children crisis, strengthen teacher development and expand opportunities for young Nigerians.
Spokesperson for the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Dele Alake, disclosed the figures in a statement on Wednesday, citing the Federal Ministry of Education’s Nigerian Education Sector Renewal Initiative 2026 report.
According to the statement, the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) had disbursed N372.62bn to students across 319 tertiary institutions. The amount comprises N192.89bn for tuition and institutional fees and N179.73bn for students’ upkeep allowances.
The council added that NELFUND had processed 1,659,853 student loan applications, describing the scheme as a major intervention to reduce financial barriers to higher education.
On technical and vocational education, the APC said the Federal Government’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training programme had attracted more than 2.8 million applications, with 156,446 verified trainees receiving free training, monthly stipends and start-up support.
It said more than N65.7bn had been disbursed to trainees, while N30.2bn had been paid to training centres. The administration had also rehabilitated 38 technical colleges and introduced free technical education covering tuition, boarding, textbooks and uniforms.
In basic education, the council highlighted the $552m secured for the Human Capital Opportunities for Prosperity and Equity for Quality Basic Education for All programme, known as HOPE-EDU.
The initiative is designed to reach 29 million children, support more than 500,000 teachers and cover 65,000 public schools, with funding backed by the World Bank and the Global Partnership for Education.
The council also 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.
On girls’ education, it said the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment programme had reached 7.19 million girls, including 3.7 million enrolled in secondary schools, while more than 10,000 schools had benefited from improved facilities.
The administration also cited curriculum reforms, including the reintroduction of Nigerian History and the strengthening of Civic and Heritage Studies, as well as the restoration of the National Learning Assessment to monitor pupils’ academic performance.
On teacher development, the council disclosed 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.
It added that the initiative, backed by N2bn, was targeting 250,000 teachers by 2027.
The statement further highlighted improvements in tertiary education, including a 40 per cent increase in academic staff remuneration, following an agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities, and the resolution of the longstanding dispute between the Federal Government and university lecturers.
It said the Tertiary Institutions Staff Support Fund had disbursed N28bn to 15,000 workers across 153 public tertiary institutions, providing eligible beneficiaries with loans of up to N10m for housing, healthcare, transportation and education.
In medical and science education, the APC said the government was investing N110bn in the rehabilitation of 18 federal medical schools across the six geopolitical zones.
It also reported that 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.
On research and innovation, the council 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 added, could access up to N50m in equity-free funding.
The council further disclosed that the Federal Government allocated N3.52tn to education in the 2026 budget, describing the allocation as evidence of its commitment to improving the sector.
However, Nigeria continues to face major education challenges, including inadequate infrastructure, poor learning outcomes, teacher shortages and a high number of out-of-school children.
The World Bank-backed HOPE-EDU programme estimates that 14.8 million Nigerian children aged five to 14 are out of school, with 95 per cent of them concentrated in northern Nigeria. It also estimates that 45.8 million children in the age group cannot read and understand a simple text.
The sector is also grappling with rising education costs, particularly at the tertiary level, where increased tuition, accommodation and transportation expenses continue to place pressure on students and their families.
Commenting on the reforms, Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the success of government interventions should be measured by their impact on learners, teachers and educational institutions rather than the amount of money allocated or the number of programmes introduced.
The APC council maintained that the administration’s interventions were aimed at repositioning education as a driver of national development, economic growth and employment generation.
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