Minister of Education Dr Tunji Alausa has revealed that,following a high-level advocacy carried out by him in personalised letters, 27 states and the FCT have accessed N78.6billion Universal Basic Education (UBEC) matching grants by mid 2025.
He also said as of July 24, 2025, the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) disbursed N77billion to 396,252 students across 20 tertiary institutions nationwide.
The minister disclosed this at a media parley in Abuja Tuesday.
He said: “Following the personalized letters, there was a 65% surge in UBEC grants were noticed by mid-year 2025. 27 states and the Federal Capital Territory have accessed N78.6billion in Universal Basic Education, UBE, matching grants by mid2025.
“The upsurge followed the implementation of the UBEC 2025-2030 Strategic Blueprint, which introduced a revised matching grant formula that priotises equity, quality, accountability, and advocacy carried out” by hi in his the personalized letters.
Prior to that time, Blueprint reports that the minister, had in April through that UBEC Fund Activation-Strategy , residential Backing & Governors’ Engagement, initiated a national drive to unlock over N263billion in un-accessed UBEC Funds.
This, according to sources, he did by writing directly and engaging one-on-one with the governors to unblock the N263billion “un-accessed UBEC funds held back due to non-payment of counterpart funding by states(2020-2024).
Among other modalities, the minister, through the letters, “reminded the states of their legal obligation under Section11 (2) of the UBE Act 2004.
“Also, new policy implementation tools introduced state-by-state monitoring with set deadlines; deployment of performance indicators to track fund disbursement and the impact of basic education, as well as emphasis on accountability, transparency, and real-time data tracking.”
On NELFUND, which he described as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s signature policy, the minister said “the implementation and targeting (especially in Northern Nigeria) has a strong connection the Ministry of Education for planning, selection and coordination.
“The application portal for Nigeria’s National Student Loan Programme, managed by the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), opened on May 24, 2024. The program aims to provide interest-free loans to eligible Nigerian students in public tertiary institutions nationwide.
“As of July 24, 2025, NELFUND reported that more than N77 billion (US$50million) had been disbursed to 396,252 students across 210 tertiary institutions nationwide. Applications for the 2023/2024 academic session closed on February 21, 2025, while the portal for the 2024/2025 application cycle opened on February 22, 2025.”
The minister further listed other programmes put together by the Tinubu administration to improve the quality of Nigeria’s educational institutions to make it among the world’s best.
According to him, government would provide teaching aids and equipment, and also embark on infrastructure rehabilitation and upgrade from primary to tertiary level.
Alausa said the government would fully implement its Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medical Sciences (STEMM) agenda, through which monotechnics, Polytechnics and universities in line with national priorities.
Towards this end, he said the federal government, in 2024, approved the commencement of the Vocational and Technical Education Reforms (TVET) f ans allocated N120 billion in partnership with Bank of Industry (BOI) and Nigerian Education Loans Find (NELFUND).
It similarly approved N22,500 monthly stipend for students at federal and state technical colleges, in order to reduce financial barriers to vocational education.
On unity schools, the minister said N80 billion had been approved for major infrastructure investment.
This, according to him, would cover rehabilitation, security, fencing and solar installations among others.