How Tinubu Administration Disbursed N372.6Bn In Student Loans, Widened Access To Learning -Alake
By Sunday Etuka
More than 1.6 million Nigerian students have applied for loans under the Tinubu administration’s education reforms, with the Nigerian Education Student Loan Fund (NELFUND) disbursing N372.62 billion to learners across 319 tertiary institutions, according to the Federal Ministry of Education’s Nigerian Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI) 2026 report.
The report, cited in a statement by the APC Presidential Campaign Council Spokesperson, Dele Alake, says the reforms have widened access to learning, improved teachers’ welfare and stabilised the academic calendar in higher institutions.
Of the sum disbursed by NELFUND, N192.89 billion went to tuition and N179.73 billion to upkeep allowances. The fund has processed 1,659,853 loan applications so far.
At the basic education level, the Federal Government allocated a record N3.52 trillion to education in the 2026 budget and secured $552 million for the HOPE-EDU programme, which targets 29 million children, over 500,000 teachers and 65,000 public schools.
The BESDA programme has returned over one million out-of-school children to learning, trained 1,400 Tsangaya teachers and set up 200 bilingual centres across 17 northern states.
The AGILE programme has reached 7.19 million girls, with 3.7 million enrolled in secondary schools and over 10,000 schools benefiting from improved facilities.
The administration has also introduced a revised national curriculum that reintroduces Nigerian History and strengthens Civic and Heritage Studies, while the National Learning Assessment has been restored to track pupils’ performance and identify learning gaps.
Under EduRevamp, 53,553 teachers have registered, and 51,794 joined the first cohort of the Accelerated Teacher Professionalisation Pathway, a six-month programme offering qualifications, certification and licensing. Backed by N2 billion, it targets 250,000 teachers by 2027.
The Inspire Live initiative provides online lessons from Primary One to Senior Secondary School Three, supported by certified teachers and AI-assisted learning.
On technical and vocational education, the TVET scheme has drawn over 2.8 million applications, with 156,446 verified trainees receiving free training, monthly stipends and start-up support.
More than N65.7 billion has been paid to trainees and N30.2 billion to training centres. Thirty-eight technical colleges have been rehabilitated, and technical education now covers tuition, boarding, textbooks and uniforms at no cost.
In the tertiary sector, the administration has resolved the long-running dispute with the Academic Staff Union of Universities and implemented an agreement that provided a 40 percent increase in academic staff remuneration and better welfare benefits.
The Tertiary Institutions Staff Support Fund has paid out N28 billion to 15,000 workers in 153 public institutions, offering eligible staff loans of up to N10 million for housing, healthcare, transportation and education.
The Federal Government is investing N110 billion to rehabilitate 18 federal medical schools across the six geopolitical zones. Nursing enrolment rose from 81,480 in 2023 to 114,300 in 2025, while 20 STEM-focused tertiary institutions have been approved and 12 engineering and technology faculties are slated for rehabilitation.
On research and entrepreneurship, N365 million is provided annually through the National Laureate Prize, and the Student Venture Capital Grant has disbursed over N2.5 billion to 45 student entrepreneurs, each of whom can access up to N50 million in equity-free funding.
Entrepreneurship certification is ongoing in 14 federal universities, and the Diaspora BRIDGE initiative has registered 1,141 Nigerian experts abroad and reached 16,675 students across 107 tertiary institutions.
Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the success of the reforms would be judged by their effect on students, teachers and institutions, not by the amount of money allocated or the number of programmes launched.
“It is the difference these interventions make in the lives of our children, students, teachers and institutions,” he said.
