The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has provided more than ₦300 billion to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) to support the Federal Government’s student loan scheme, its Executive Secretary, Arc. Sonny Echono, has said.
Echono said the funding was intended to widen access to higher education and reduce the financial pressure on students, while cautioning that the continuation of some TETFund programmes could depend on future government policy decisions.
He spoke in Abuja at the 2026 TETFund Board of Trustees National Town Hall Meeting with stakeholders, themed “Investing in Nigeria’s Future: Tertiary Education, Human Capital and National Development.”
“Nearly all the funds that have been released to Nigerian students, over N300 billion of it, was provided to NELFUND by the Federal Government,” Echono said.
He noted that TETFund had contributed to the processes that led to the establishment and operationalisation of NELFUND, describing the loan scheme as a major initiative of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Beyond student loans, Echono outlined other interventions aimed at improving staff welfare, supporting student innovation, expanding research capacity and strengthening digital learning in tertiary institutions.
He disclosed that an interest-free loan scheme had been approved for academic and non-academic staff of tertiary institutions. A separate student innovation fund is also expected to help young innovators develop ideas into products with commercial potential.
The agency is also investing in research infrastructure, including multipurpose laboratories. Echono said President Tinubu had agreed to commission one such facility in Abuja.
He added that more than 418 projects across beneficiary institutions were ready for commissioning. Modern student hostels were being developed in 114 institutions, while 42 institutions had received transportation support for students.
Echono urged education stakeholders to protect the gains from the interventions, warning that policy decisions that undermine their continuation could threaten some of the programmes.
Earlier, TETFund Board of Trustees Chairman Aminu Bello Masari disclosed that the agency’s funding had grown from ₦320.3 billion in 2023 to ₦683.4 billion in 2024 and ₦1.6 trillion in 2025.
Masari, a former governor of Katsina State, attributed the increase to the Federal Government’s commitment to improving tertiary education.
He said the additional resources had enabled beneficiary institutions to strengthen infrastructure, academic programmes, research facilities and the overall learning environment.
“For the 2026 annual direct intervention alone, 271 beneficiary institutions are covered,” Masari said.
Under the allocation, each university is to receive approximately ₦2.526 billion, while polytechnics are allocated about ₦1.871 billion each and colleges of education approximately ₦2.057 billion each.
Masari said the impact of the investment should not be assessed solely by the amount disbursed or the number of buildings completed, but by the quality of graduates produced and their contribution to national development.
He also disclosed that TETFund had committed ₦10 billion in 2026 to developing skills acquisition centres in polytechnics nationwide.
The programme includes the provision of training equipment and consumables, alongside the training of quality assurance assessors to improve standards in skills acquisition programmes.
Masari said the initiative complemented the agency’s support for innovation and entrepreneurship centres, as well as the ₦48 billion approved for upgrading engineering and technology facilities in 12 universities.
On research funding, he said approximately ₦6.09 billion had been approved for 174 successful proposals under the 2025 National Research Fund grant cycle.
He urged beneficiary institutions to manage the resources transparently, use them for their intended purposes and maintain facilities established through TETFund interventions.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, also called on tertiary institutions to demonstrate measurable improvements in teaching, research, governance and graduate quality in return for increased public investment.
Akume, represented by Aliyu Zakari-Jiya, said the agency’s performance should be assessed not only by physical infrastructure but also by the quality of scholarship and graduates’ ability to contribute meaningfully to society.
He urged institutions to ensure accountability and utilise funds promptly to achieve the objectives for which they were released.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, represented by the Minister of State for Education, Suwaiba Ahmad, reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to human capital development through education reform, research, innovation and professional development.
Alausa stressed that infrastructure investment must be accompanied by support for lecturers, teachers, researchers and other education professionals, noting that institutions needed qualified personnel to operate and maintain new facilities.
He also highlighted the ongoing review of curricula and national occupational standards to better align education and skills training with industry requirements and labour market needs.
The discussions at the town hall meeting centred on how increased funding could translate into better learning conditions, stronger research capacity, improved technical skills and graduates better prepared to contribute to Nigeria’s development.
