The Federal Government says it has invested more than ₦1tn in Nigeria’s tertiary education sector over the past two years, describing the intervention as one of the largest investments in the country’s higher education history aimed at expanding access and improving learning outcomes.

The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, disclosed this while addressing members of the National Committee for the Advancement of Occupational Therapy, Audiology and Speech and Language Therapy Education.

According to the minister, the investment reflects President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to ensuring that financial hardship does not prevent qualified Nigerians from accessing higher education.

“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.

Alausa said the administration’s education reforms are focused on strengthening universities, polytechnics and colleges of education while producing the skilled workforce needed to drive economic growth and national development.

He disclosed that ₦250bn has been committed to constructing new student hostels across tertiary institutions to improve accommodation and create a more conducive learning environment.

The minister added that another ₦150bn is being invested in rehabilitating existing hostels, classrooms, engineering workshops and other academic facilities to enhance teaching, research and learning.

According to him, the government has also allocated more than ₦130bn to rehabilitate medical schools and expand their training capacity nationwide.

He said ₦52bn has been invested in procuring modern equipment for 18 medical schools, while nearly ₦30bn is funding the establishment of 11 state-of-the-art medical simulation laboratories to strengthen practical clinical training.

To improve engineering education, Alausa said the Federal Government has invested almost ₦110bn in constructing and rehabilitating engineering workshops and providing modern equipment for federal universities of technology, conventional universities offering engineering programmes and polytechnics.

He described the interventions as unprecedented, noting that the over ₦1tn investment covers infrastructure development, rehabilitation of facilities, procurement of modern equipment, expansion of specialised laboratories and workshops, and institutional capacity building.

“This is amazing. This is just mind-boggling what this President has done in rapidly transforming tertiary education,” he said.

Alausa added that the investments extend beyond physical infrastructure and are intended to equip graduates with the technical knowledge and practical skills needed to drive innovation, industrialisation and long-term economic transformation.

Also speaking, Chairperson of the National Committee for the Advancement of Occupational Therapy, Audiology and Speech and Language Therapy Education, Dr Victoria Omua Amu, said the committee had developed a one-year implementation plan and begun consultations with the National Universities Commission, universities and other stakeholders to expand specialised healthcare education.

She said 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 will commence an Occupational Therapy programme in the 2026/2027 academic session.

The minister reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to ensuring that no qualified Nigerian is denied access to tertiary education because of financial constraints, while pledging continued support for institutions to deliver quality teaching, research and innovation.