The budget of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TTEFund) has risen from N320.3 billion in 2023 to N1.6 trillion in 2025, the fund’s chairman, board of trustees, Aminu Bello Masari, has said.
Masari disclosed this at the 2026 TETFund board of trustees national town hall meeting held in Abuja on Thursday.
The meeting was themed “Investing in Nigeria’s Future: Tertiary Education, Human Capital and National Development.”
According to him, the growth reflects the commitment of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to tertiary education under the Renewed Hope Agenda.
In his welcome address, Masari said the meeting was convened to connect public investment with results. The board chairman explained that tertiary institutions must produce professionals for public service, researchers to solve national problems, and entrepreneurs to create jobs.
His words: “The scale of funding reflects that commitment. TETFund’s budget increased from N320.3 billion in 2023 to N683.4 billion in 2024, reaching N1.6 trillion in 2025- approximately five times the 2023 level.”
The Former Sokoto State governor added that under the 2026 annual direct intervention, 271 institutions will benefit. Each university will get about N2.526 billion, each polytechnic N1.871 billion and each college of education N2.057 billion.
Masari noted that the resources are meant to improve infrastructure, academic programmes, research and learning conditions, but stressed that their worth must be seen in graduate quality. He warned that money alone will not fix the sector.
“We recognise that increased funding alone cannot resolve every challenge. Institutional leadership, prudent management, transparency and proper maintenance are essential,” he said.
The TETFund chairman urged frank contributions from stakeholders, saying as 2027 approaches, Nigerians will assess both resources committed and outcomes achieved.
In his remarks, the minister of state for education, Prof. Suwaiba Said Ahmad, said TETFund remains critical to strengthening public tertiary education through infrastructure, equipment, research and staff development.
She commended the Fund for creating a platform for collective action and said government is committed to making education a strategic investment for productivity and inclusive growth.
Ahmad said curriculum reforms undertaken by the National Board for Technical Education, National Commission for Colleges of Education and the National Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) were funded by TETFund.
“The curriculum reforms were funded by TETFund, and we thank the leaders at TETFund for giving these funds to curriculum reforms. Infrastructure development, staff training, laboratory equipment, without the necessary and adequate curriculum may not lead to the transformation we want to see,” she stated.
She disclosed that the agriculture curriculum review produced 36 new and reviewed national diplomas, 10 higher national diplomas, 30 Nigeria certificate in education programmes and 21 national occupational standards.
According to her, the reform proposes a shift to 80 percent practical and 20 percent theory to build hands-on competencies for modern agriculture and agribusiness.
The minister also said government is pushing inclusive access through NELFUND and other student support initiatives, while stressing that adequate funding, private sector partnerships and proper maintenance are key to sustainability.
Also speaking, the executive secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono, said the funding increase has allowed the Fund to support major federal policies outside its traditional mandate.
He disclosed that the student loan scheme was largely financed by TETFund. “I can confirm to you that nearly all the funds that we release to Nigerian students, over 300 billion of it, was provided by TETFund,” Echono said.
He added that for the first time, Nigeria now has credible education data on enrollment, out-of-school children and facilities, fully funded by TETFund.
According to him, the Fund has also created support for student innovation. “Any student who brings their ideas or creates or makes anything, we are in a position to support them to prove their concept. We support the making of the prototype. We will help them protect their intellectual property,” he said.
Echono said the Fund is establishing six central multipurpose laboratories and has obtained presidential approval for six additional centres of excellence in robotics, AI, coding and cybersecurity, which will bring the number to 36.
On project delivery, he said: “As I speak, tomorrow, we will be commissioning 14 projects in one institution. Over 418 projects are ready for commissioning across the country.”
The TETFund boss also noted that the Fund is supporting student transportation in 42 institutions, with 38 institutions producing electric vehicles.
In his keynote address titled “From Degree to Development: Are Nigeria Universities Producing the Human Capital Nigeria Needs?,” the vice chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, Prof. Sagir Adamu Abbas, said Nigerian graduates must be adaptable, digitally competent and prepared for lifelong learning.
“Digital competence is no longer the vulnerability of computer science. It has to be across all fields. We need to prepare our students for jobs that may not yet exist,” he said.
He warned that, according to World Bank records, “in the next 10 to 20 years, Nigeria will have 20 million workers who will need digital competencies.”
Abbas listed Nigeria’s human capital needs to include food security, energy and infrastructure, industrialisation, digital transformation, healthcare, education and climate resilience.
He maintained that “Nigeria priorities from food security to industrialisation, to healthcare, energy, digital transformation, and stronger institutions cannot be achieved by infrastructure and technology alone. We need people to operate and create what we have that has been established.”
The Bayero VC urged universities to align programmes deliberately to national needs and to ensure research targets Nigerian problems rather than just colourful proposals.
