Dangote launches N1trn education fund to support students

Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote yesterday launched a N1 trillion education fund aimed at reducing financial barriers that drive millions of young Nigerians out of school. The education fund tagged Education Support Initiative was powered through Aliko Dangote Foundation. According to him, the N1 trillion projected to last for 10 years will gulp N100billion annually. He […]

Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote yesterday launched a N1 trillion education fund aimed at reducing financial barriers that drive millions of young Nigerians out of school.

The education fund tagged Education Support Initiative was powered through Aliko Dangote Foundation.

According to him, the N1 trillion projected to last for 10 years will gulp N100billion annually.

He said the plan will support 45,000 new students every year from 2026, rising to 155,000 beneficiaries by the fourth year and remaining at that level for ten years.

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In total, the scheme is projected to reach 1.3 million students across all 774 local government areas.

He added that the initiative comprises four programmes targeted at sectors where educational exclusion is most acute.

“Through the Aliko Dangote STEM Scholars, the programme will fund 30,000 undergraduate students annually in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) across Nigeria’s public universities and polytechnics.

“The beneficiaries will have their tuition aligned to actual institutional fees,” he said.

Dangote said the intervention is aimed at Nigeria’s most vulnerable learners, noting that financial hardship, not lack of talent, is the primary reason many drop out of school.

“This is not only charity. This is a strategic investment in Nigeria’s future. Every child we keep in school strengthens our economy. Every student we support reduces inequality. Every scholar we empower becomes a future contributor to national development,” he said.

“Our young people are not asking for handouts. They are asking for opportunities. They are asking for a chance to learn, to grow, to compete and to succeed. And we believe they deserve that chance,” he said

Dangote noted that for more than three decades, the Aliko Dangote Foundation has invested heavily in health, nutrition, economic empowerment and humanitarian support across Nigeria.

“No nation can rise above the quality of education it offers its young people,” he said.

He described education as “the foundation on which every prosperous society is built”, calling it the most powerful equaliser and the strongest engine of social mobility.

Despite this, he warned that many talented Nigerian students continue to face financial pressures that threaten to push them out of school.

“We cannot allow financial hardship to silence the dreams of our young people — not when the future of our nation depends on their skills, resilience and leadership,” he said.

Vice President Kashim Shettima said the intervention demonstrates the critical role of private-sector actors in national development.

He noted that Nigeria’s demographic growth makes urgent investment in education indispensable, warning that “a population becomes a liability only when it is uneducated.”

“Alhaji Aliko Dangote, through his far-reaching philanthropy, has set in motion the single largest private-sector education support intervention in the history of this country,” Shettima said.

“What he has done here today is a lesson to each of us. This is nation-building in its purest form.”

Describing Dangote’s philanthropy as “structural and long term,” Shettima said the initiative aligns strongly with the government’s priority of expanding equitable access to education.

“No nation surpasses the aspirations of its most committed patriots,” he said. “The legacy of Alhaji Aliko Dangote reminds us that greatness is not measured by wealth but by the number of lives one lifts from the shadows into the light.”

The Vice President added that the Aliko Dangote Foundation programme will widen opportunities for thousands of learners and bolster the FG’s efforts to build a competitive workforce.

He called for stronger collaboration between government, the private sector and development partners to address persistent gaps in the education system.

The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa described the initiative as pure human capital development, saying it aligns with the Tinubu administration’s education sector renewal plan of transforming Nigeria from resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy.

He said that by the end of the first decade of the scholarship programme, an estimated 170,000 girls would have been enrolled in school through the MHF scholars alone, significantly helping to close the gender gap in education.

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II and the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed were part of the diginatries present.