he Federal Government has invested more than ₦1 trillion in Nigeria’s tertiary education sector over the past two years as part of efforts to expand access to higher education, upgrade infrastructure and strengthen the country’s human capital development, the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, has said.
Alausa said the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is removing financial barriers that have prevented many qualified Nigerians from pursuing higher education, while making unprecedented investments in universities, polytechnics and colleges of education to improve learning conditions and institutional capacity.
Speaking during a meeting with members of the National Committee for the Advancement of Occupational Therapy, Audiology and Speech and Language Therapy Education in Abuja, the minister said the government’s reforms are aimed at ensuring that no qualified Nigerian is denied access to quality higher education because of financial hardship.
He said President Tinubu had demonstrated a strong commitment to investing in human capital through policies designed to expand educational opportunities and improve the quality of tertiary education.
According to him, 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 added that more than ₦150 billion has been committed to rehabilitating existing hostels, classrooms, engineering workshops and other academic facilities.
The minister also highlighted significant investments in medical education, disclosing that over ₦130 billion has been spent on rehabilitating medical schools and expanding their training capacity nationwide. He said an additional ₦52 billion has been allocated for the procurement of modern equipment for 18 medical schools, while nearly ₦30 billion has been invested in establishing 11 medical simulation laboratories to strengthen practical clinical training.
To boost engineering education, Alausa said the Federal Government has invested almost ₦110 billion 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.
Describing the interventions as among the largest investments in the history of Nigeria’s tertiary education sector, the minister said the over ₦1 trillion committed in the last two years covers infrastructure development, rehabilitation of facilities, procurement of modern equipment, expansion of specialised laboratories and workshops, and institutional capacity building.
He noted that the investments are expected to produce graduates equipped with the technical knowledge and practical skills required to drive innovation, industrialisation and long-term economic growth.
Earlier, 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 since its inauguration.
She said the committee had developed a one-year implementation plan with defined timelines and performance indicators, established a governance framework featuring quarterly physical and monthly virtual meetings, and constituted three specialised subcommittees focusing on advocacy and communication, academic liaison and clinical training, as well as manpower development and transition pathways.
Amu disclosed that a baseline assessment of Nigerian universities showed that six institutions currently offer Audiology programmes, five offer Occupational Therapy programmes, while three offer Speech and Language Therapy programmes. She said the committee had also commenced consultations with the National Universities Commission (NUC), the Medical Rehabilitation Therapists (Registration) Board of Nigeria (MRTB), universities, professional associations and private tertiary education providers.
She added that the University of Benin would begin offering Occupational Therapy in the 2026/2027 academic session, while identifying delays in the release of TETFund support as a major implementation challenge.
Reaffirming the ministry’s commitment to the reforms, Alausa said the Federal Government would continue to work with tertiary institutions and other stakeholders to improve educational outcomes, strengthen institutions and expand opportunities for Nigerian students across the country.
