The International Day of Education has been celebrated globally on 24th January each year since 2019. The Day focuses on the importance of inclusive, quality and lifelong learning for all, to address the barriers of poverty, gender inequality, and conflict. Nigerians know well the barrier to education faced by millions of young people living in poverty and conflict, and experiencing gender inequality.
The Nigerian government’s leadership in bringing down poverty barriers to education is unquestionable. Also unquestionable is the tight fiscal space Nigeria is currently facing. This no doubt explains the 6.15 per cent allocation to the education sector in Nigeria’s 2026 budget. This figure of 6.15 per cent translates to N3.6 trillion, which is 8.85 per cent or N5.2 trillion less than UNESCO’s recommendation of 15 per cent of public expenditure for the education sector. The 6.15 per cent allocation to the education sector in 2026 is also lower than the 7.82 per cent allocation in the 2025 budget.
How is the allocation to the education sector to be spent in 2026? The 2026 budget lines for the education sector show smaller allocations to sub-lines such as WASH, advocacy and systems strengthening, teaching and learning material and even school safety within the capital budget. The highest percentage of capital funding, by far – 58 per cent – is allocated to the school feeding and nutrition programme. This is followed by out-of-school and special needs children at 14 per cent of the capital budget, two priority areas of government.
Against the background of the country’s tight fiscal space and to address the anticipated 2026 funding gap for the education sector, in December 2025, the Nigeria Education Forum (NEF) of the Nigerian Governors Forum, called for new sources of complementary funding from the private sector, philanthropists, development partners and state governments. Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, appears to have answered the NEF’s call for complementary funding with the 11th December launch of the STEM Scholarship and Girls Education Programme in Lagos State. At the launch, Mr Dangote committed to a N1 trillion ($688 million) 10-year endowment for education.
Mr Dangote’s education endowment aimed to reduce barriers to tertiary education for Nigeria’s poor and vulnerable youth and to support girls’ education. Over the period 2026-2036, the scholarship programme aimed to reach 1,325,000 vulnerable students in public universities and polytechnics across Nigeria’s 774 local government areas in the 36 states and the Federal Capital.
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Dangote’s generous and unprecedented investment in Nigeria’s youth is coming at a critical juncture, as USAID’s defunding of development and humanitarian programmes in Nigeria has left a significant gap in the country’s education funding landscape. While active World Bank education loans, credits and associated grants to Nigeria are important and are adding value, with current estimates to be around $3.25 billion, the Nigerian government’s commitment to mobilising resources domestically remains an actionable strategy, given the number of wealthy and committed Nigerians in banking, industry, tech, the oil sector and the creatives economy, both in Nigeria and abroad, ready, willing and already supporting schools in their communities.
To pool more domestic philanthropic financing, there is a dire need for a new strategic framework to provide assurances and an institutional template for the education sector’s sustainable financing. It is also critical to coordinate and align domestic philanthropic financing with resources from government, donors, and the lending arms of International Financing Corporations, in one harmonised multi-revenue-resourced financing plan. Against this background, the Dangote award emerges as an important test case, coming under the searchlight of an entire education community in Africa, seeking to learn how public-private partnerships address resource gaps and advance human capital development.
Judith-Ann Walker holds a PhD in International Development from the ISS, the Hague, Netherlands; is a member of the Presidential-High Level Council on Women and Girls (P-HiLAC), Nigeria; and the Executive Director of the development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC).
