LCCI: Nigeria’s Education System Has Funding, Access, Tech, Policy Problems

• Tasks private sector to co-invest in educational infrastructure

Dike Onwuamaeze

The President of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mr. Leye Kupoluyi, has declared that Nigeria’s educational system has funding, access, technology and policy misalignment problems.

Kupoluyi declared this yesterday at the chamber’s education conference with the theme “Technology, Policy and Access: Building Inclusive Education Systems for the Future,” where he tasked the private sector to co-invest in developing educational infrastructure.

The LCCI’s president pointed out that technology, policy, and access are not three separate panels today but are three legs of the same chair that this chamber intends to help build.

He said: “Nigeria’s education story is, at its core, a business story: it determines the workforce we hire, the consumers we sell to, and the country we trade in. I want to make that case in five numbers.

“Nigeria does not have an education funding problem alone; it has an access, technology, and policy misalignment, and closing that gap is the single highest-return investment available to this chamber.”

He stated that Nigeria is host to one of the largest out-of-school populations on earth that is measured in the tens of millions, not thousands, which meant that roughly one in five of the world’s out-of-school children is a Nigerian.

According to him, UNICEF’s 2024 data put the figure at approximately 18.3 million children out of school, which is comprised of 10.2 million at the primary level and 8.1 million at the secondary level.

He remarked that federal government’s funding still falls well below the benchmark needed to close that gap.

The president of LCCI said that 2026 federal budget allocated N3.52 trillion to education, which represented 6.1 per cent of N58.18 trillion in total spending, against UNESCO’s 15–20 per cent global benchmark and the 26 per cent threshold set out in Nigeria’s National Policy on Education.

He however noted that some state governments like Enugu, Kano and Jigawa have chosen to fund education at scale, implying that the model already exists substantial funding of education by governments that have the political will.

Kupoluyi said that “Enugu allocated 32.2 per cent of its 2026 budget to education; Kano committed N405.3 billion (30 per cent), and Jigawa committed N234.5 billion (26 per cent),” which are “proof that the recommended benchmark is achievable within Nigeria’s existing fiscal envelope once political will aligns with policy.”

The LCCI said that financing innovation is already proving that scale is possible once the right instrument is in place.

It said: “The Nigerian Education Loan Fund has disbursed over N32 billion to students since 2024, and Nigeria’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy now commits to equipping 70 per cent of young Nigerians aged 16–35, half of them women, with AI-relevant skills by 2029.

“Our members in the Education Group are potential employers who will absorb that talent if the pipeline is built correctly.”

He also said that connectivity, the infrastructure beneath every EdTech promise, crossed the halfway mark only in November 2025, but noted that the gap is concentrated exactly where access is worst particularly in the northern Nigeria.

“Broadband penetration rose to 50.58 per cent in November 2025, up from 44.43 per cent a year earlier, but that still leaves roughly half the country, disproportionately rural, northern households, without the connection a digital classroom requires,” he said.

Kupoluyi stated that the private sector’s role is not to wait for the next budget cycle but to co-invest in the infrastructure and skills that make today’s budget work harder.

He said that going forward, educational success should be measured not only by enrolment and graduation rates but also by employability and productivity outcomes.