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Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has said President Bola Tinubu has invested over ₦ 1 trillion in infrastructure, specialised training facilities and modern learning environments across Nigerian tertiary institutions under two years.
He said the underlying aim was to ensure the expansion of access to all eligible citizens, eliminating financial barriers.
Alausa said the investment has strengthened universities, polytechnics and colleges of education to be able to produce the skilled workforce needed to drive national development and economic growth.
He gave the statistics on Tuesday, while playing host to members of the National Committee for the advancement of occupational therapy, audiology and speech therapy education, in Abuja.
According to him, President Tinubu has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to investing in Nigeria’s greatest asset, its people, through bold policies and sustained investments that are expanding educational opportunities and improving the quality of tertiary education across the country.
“This President 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,” he stated.
According to him, the Federal Government has invested ₦250 billion in the construction of new student hostels across tertiary institutions, significantly improving accommodation and creating more conducive learning environments.
He added that over ₦150 billion has been committed to rehabilitating existing hostels, classrooms, engineering workshops and other academic facilities to strengthen teaching, learning and research.
Highlighting the administration’s commitment to medical education, Dr Alausa disclosed that more than ₦130 billion has been invested in rehabilitating medical schools and expanding their training capacity nationwide.
He further stated that another ₦52 billion has been committed to providing modern equipment for 18 medical schools, while nearly ₦30 billion has been invested in establishing 11 state-of-the-art medical simulation laboratories to enhance practical clinical training and produce globally competitive healthcare professionals.
To strengthen engineering education and support Nigeria’s industrial development, the Minister said the Federal Government has also invested almost ₦110 billion in constructing and rehabilitating engineering workshops and providing modern equipment for Federal Universities of Technology, conventional universities offering engineering programmes and polytechnics.
Dr Alausa described the interventions as among the most significant investments in Nigeria’s tertiary education history, noting that the over ₦1 trillion committed in the past two years covers new infrastructure, rehabilitation of existing facilities, procurement of modern equipment, expansion of specialised laboratories and workshops, and the strengthening of institutional capacity for quality teaching, learning and research.
Chairman of the National Committee for the Advancement of Occupational Therapy, Audiology and Speech and Language Therapy Education, Dr Victoria Omua Amu, said a baseline assessment of the Nigerian university system showed that six universities currently offer audiology programmes, five offer occupational therapy programmes, and three offer speech and language therapy programmes, providing a benchmark for measuring future progress.
