By Opeyemi Adelakun
The Federal Government has declared that no qualified Nigerian will be denied access to tertiary education because of financial hardship, saying sweeping reforms under President Bola Tinubu’s administration have dismantled long-standing financial barriers that kept many young people out of higher institutions.
Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, made the declaration while meeting with members of the National Committee for the Advancement of Occupational Therapy, Audiology and Speech and Language Therapy Education, stressing that access to higher education is now being driven by merit rather than a student’s financial background.
According to the minister, the administration has deliberately expanded educational opportunities through student-focused policies designed to ensure that every qualified Nigerian can pursue tertiary education irrespective of family income.
He said President Tinubu had placed human capital development at the centre of his administration’s agenda, describing education as a critical tool for national transformation.
Alausa said financial limitations should no longer prevent talented Nigerians from fulfilling their academic aspirations.
“This President, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, 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 said.
He added that the administration’s interventions were intended to produce a generation of educated and skilled Nigerians capable of contributing meaningfully to the country’s economic and social development.
“We thank President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for believing in the youth of this country and giving them all the opportunities for them to excel, to be useful to themselves, to be useful to their communities, to be useful to the country and to the global world at large,” the minister added.
Highlighting the scale of government intervention, Alausa disclosed that more than ₦1 trillion had been committed to tertiary education infrastructure and institutional development over the last two years.
He said the government had allocated ₦250 billion for the construction of new student hostels, while an additional ₦150 billion was invested in rehabilitating existing hostels, lecture halls, engineering workshops and other academic facilities across tertiary institutions.
The minister further revealed that over ₦130 billion had gone into the rehabilitation and expansion of medical schools nationwide, alongside ₦52 billion approved for modern medical equipment in 18 institutions.
He also announced that nearly ₦30 billion had been invested in establishing 11 medical simulation laboratories to improve practical clinical training for students.
According to him, engineering education has also received significant attention, with almost ₦110 billion channelled into 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 intervention as one of the largest investments ever made in Nigeria’s tertiary education sector, Alausa said the projects cover infrastructure development, facility upgrades, laboratory expansion, procurement of modern equipment and institutional capacity building.
“This is amazing. This is just mind-boggling what this President has done in rapidly transforming tertiary education,” he said.
He maintained that the investments would strengthen teaching, research and innovation while producing graduates with the practical competencies required to support industrialisation and long-term economic growth.
The minister reaffirmed the Federal Ministry of Education’s commitment to working with tertiary institutions and stakeholders to ensure the reforms translate into measurable improvements in educational quality and student outcomes.
Earlier, 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 progress.
She said the committee had developed a one-year implementation plan, established a governance framework and created specialised subcommittees to drive advocacy, manpower development and academic collaboration.
Amu disclosed that six Nigerian universities currently offer Audiology programmes, five offer Occupational Therapy, while three run Speech and Language Therapy programmes. She added that the University of Benin would begin an Occupational Therapy programme during the 2026/2027 academic session.
She, however, identified delays in the release of Tertiary Education Trust Fund support as a major obstacle affecting implementation.
The Federal Government has continued to prioritise tertiary education under the Renewed Hope Agenda through initiatives such as the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, increased funding for institutions and expanded investment in learning infrastructure aimed at improving access, quality and research across universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
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