At UNGA 81, Nigeria Teams Up with Italy for $5bn Global Education Funding

Tinubu: Vision aligns with our agenda to improve outcomes, invest in access, capacity building 

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Nigeria and Italy have strengthened collaboration to implement the proposed Global Partnership for Education (GPE) financing campaign targeted at mobilising $5 billion for education financing worldwide.

This was just as President Bola Tinubu has said the GPE vision aligned with Nigeria’s agenda which aims at improving educational outcomes by investing in access as well as capacity building for teachers.

The president made this disclosure yesterday in New York, United States, during the Multiply Possibility High-level event tagged, “A New Era for Education Financing” held on the margins of the ongoing 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

In his intervention, Tinubu, in a video message, also commended stakeholders in the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) for their efforts in accelerating education financing globally.

Vice President Kashim Shettima, who is representing the Nigerian president at the global gathering, noted that education was an investment in Nigeria’s economic future, and productivity as well as the prosperity and stability of its citizens, stressing that it was not merely an expense at the margins of the country’s development agenda.

He said: “For Nigeria, education is not an expenditure at the margins of our development agenda. It is an investment in our economic future, national productivity, and the prosperity and stability of our people.

“Since President Bola Tinubu assumed office in 2023, our Administration has substantially increased resources devoted to education, while pursuing reforms to strengthen basic education financing, expand foundational learning, and improve access to tertiary and technical education.

“Through the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, we are widening access to higher education, while strengthening the link between education, skills, employment and enterprise.”

According to the Vice President, while Nigeria was looking beyond traditional budgetary allocations, President Tinubu has directed that liquid funds recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, once legally cleared and free from litigation, be channelled to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund.

To carry out the president’s directive, he said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) recently approved consideration of unclaimed dividends and dormant funds for the same purpose, subject to the relevant legal requirements.

This, Shettima explained, demonstrated the nation’s conviction that financing education needed mobilisation of every responsible and lawful domestic source available.

Citing Nigeria’s alliances with the World Bank and GPE through HOPE-EDU, the vice president underscored what international partnership could achieve, saying, “The programme is expected to reach approximately 29 million children and 500,000 teachers across Nigeria.

“This is precisely why GPE matters. GPE does not replace national investment; it multiplies it. The ambition before us is to mobilise US$5 billion for GPE and, through that investment, unlock additional financing for education in partner countries.

“Domestic resources must remain the anchor, complemented by development assistance, concessional finance, philanthropy and innovative financing.”

Shettima further observed that although Nigeria was a young country whose growing population could become one of its greatest economic assets, adding that this was possible only if the nation’s “young people have access to quality education, relevant skills and meaningful opportunities.”

The answer to declining global aid, he pointed out, “must therefore be smarter multilateralism: using scarce international resources to leverage much larger investments.”

He urged participants at the high-level event to ensure that it was not merely a fundraising exercise, “but a renewed compact for human capital, bringing together national leadership, international partnership and responsible financing so that every child has the opportunity to learn, thrive and contribute to their country’s future.”

Expressing Nigeria’s appreciation to the Italian government and GPE for joining in the conversation on the future of education financing, the Vice President said as co-hosts of the campaign, Nigeria was not participating merely to ask the international community to invest more in education but “to demonstrate that we are investing in education ourselves.”

Earlier in a video presentation, the Prime Minister of Italy, HE Giorgia Meloni, praised President Tinubu’s leadership and Nigeria’s determination to improve educational outcomes across all levels.

He urged all partners in the global alliance to show greater commitment to reversing the trend in developing countries.

On her part, the UN Deputy Secretary General, Dr Amina Mohammed, thanked all partners for the interest shown in the improvement of education financing in developing countries, noting that the changes sought by stakeholders should begin with the choices that governments make.

She called on International Finance Institutions to support committed countries in finding the fiscal spaces needed to improve educational outcomes, including capacity building for teachers whose motivation and training remain critical to achieving set objectives.

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