Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the government has earmarked over N250bn for a nationwide student hostel intervention aimed at ending years of overcrowding and poor living conditions in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.
Alausa who stated this during the inauguration of Governing Boards for agencies under the Federal Ministry of Education, alongside the reappointment of Chief Executive Officers, the installation of the Rector of the Federal Polytechnic, N’Yak-Shendam, and the swearing-in of Principal Officers for the Federal University of Agriculture and Entrepreneurship, Bama.
According to Alausa, the funding represents the largest single-year commitment to student accommodation in the country’s history and is a direct response to the deteriorating state of hostels in federal schools.
He said President Bola Tinubu approved the initiative under the Renewed Hope Agenda to expand access to safe and dignified housing for students across the board.
Under the plan, he noted that a minimum of 50 tertiary institutions will each receive N2bn to build new hostels or expand existing ones, with each project expected to provide at least 500 bed spaces.
He added that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund(TETFund) will oversee the disbursement and implementation to ensure accountability and timely delivery.
“We are also spending another 80 billion Naira to deliver Public Private Partnership posters that will deliver 1,200 to 1,500 bed spaces in 24 federal tertiary institutions. TETFund will come up with N1bn in counterpart funding and the rest will come up with N3bn. So, total N4bn per institution,” he stated.
The announcement comes amid growing public concern over hostel conditions, following viral footage from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka showing clogged toilets, littered floors, and dilapidated facilities in both male and female hostels.
Students attributed the decline to a prolonged cleaners’ strike caused by five months of unpaid wages, even after recent hikes in hostel fees.
Alausa said the intervention is designed to restore confidence in public tertiary education by improving student welfare and ensuring that learning environments meet basic standards of health and safety.
He stressed that the government would no longer tolerate neglect in student housing and that the initiative would be monitored closely for impact.
