The partnership was highlighted at the Multiply Possibility High-Level Event, held on the margins of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The event, tagged “A New Era for Education Financing”, brought together governments, donors and global education stakeholders to address the widening funding gap in education.
In a video message, President Bola Tinubu said the GPE vision aligned with Nigeria’s agenda of improving educational outcomes through increased access to education and investment in teacher capacity building.
Vice President Kashim Shettima described education as an investment in Nigeria’s economic future, productivity, prosperity and stability, rather than an expense at the margins of the country’s development agenda.
“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,” he said.
Shettima said the administration had, since Tinubu assumed office in 2023, increased resources devoted to education while pursuing reforms to strengthen basic education financing, expand foundational learning and improve access to tertiary and technical education.
He said the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND, had widened access to higher education while strengthening the link between education, skills, employment and enterprise.
The vice president said Nigeria was also exploring funding sources beyond traditional budgetary allocations. According to him, Tinubu had directed that liquid funds recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission once legally cleared and free from litigation, be channelled to NELFUND.
He added that the Federal Executive Council had recently approved the consideration of unclaimed dividends and dormant funds for the same purpose, subject to relevant legal requirements.
Shettima said the measures demonstrated Nigeria’s commitment to mobilizing responsible and lawful domestic resources to finance education.
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He also cited Nigeria’s partnerships with the World Bank and GPE through HOPE-EDU, saying the programme was expected to reach about 29 million children and 500,000 teachers across the country. “This is precisely why GPE matters. GPE does not replace national investment; it multiplies it,” Shettima said.
He said the ambition was to mobilize $5 billion for GPE and use the funding to unlock additional education financing in partner countries.
“Domestic resources must remain the anchor, complemented by development assistance, concessional finance, philanthropy and innovative financing,” he said.
Shettima urged participants to ensure the initiative went beyond fundraising and became “a renewed compact for human capital”.
Earlier, in a video presentation, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni commended Tinubu’s leadership and Nigeria’s efforts to improve educational outcomes at all levels.
Meloni urged partners in the global alliance to strengthen their commitment to reversing declining education outcomes in developing countries.
United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, thanked partners for their interest in improving education financing in developing countries.
She said meaningful changes should begin with the choices made by governments and called on international financial institutions to support committed countries in creating the fiscal space required to improve educational outcomes, including through teacher capacity building.
Similarly, Chair of the GPE Board of Directors, Jakaya Kikwete, called for accelerated education financing, stressing that education remained central to human rights, security and peace.
Kikwete said the GPE campaign was driven by the decline in development assistance for education and the widening financing gap.
Girls’ education activist Malala Yousafzai also emphasized the importance of collaboration in mobilizing ideas and resources.
She said global partnerships could deliver greater and more impactful results than isolated interventions by individual countries.
Yousafzai urged governments and multilateral organizations to commit more resources and efforts towards advancing gender equality in education.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that governments and donors at the high-level event made contributions towards supporting the education of at least 370 million children globally. Italy pledged €50 million to support GPE programmes and interventions.
NAN
