UBEC Reform Could Push Nigeria’s Basic Education Funding Above N3 Trillion Annually
UBEC Reform Could Push Nigeria’s Basic Education Funding Above N3 Trillion Annually A proposed reform of Nigeria’s Universal Basic Education Commission could dramatically increase federal funding for basic education, potentially raising annual intervention funds from about N1.37 trillion to N3.42 trillion if the proposed five per cent allocation becomes law. Nigeria’s basic education sector could receive its biggest funding boost in two decades under a proposed amendment to the Universal Basic Education Commission UBEC Act.
The proposed legislation seeks to increase UBEC’s allocation from two per cent to five per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund CRF. If President Bola Tinubu assents to the bill, annual funding for basic education could rise to approximately N3.42 trillion, compared with the current estimate of about N1.37 trillion. That would represent an increase of more than N2 trillion a year, or roughly 150 per cent, significantly expanding the resources available for intervention in Nigeria’s basic education system. The reform has already passed an important legislative hurdle. The Senate approved the five per cent funding proposal in June, while the House of Representatives had earlier backed a four per cent allocation. The differences between the two versions will have to be reconciled through a conference committee before the legislation can be transmitted to the President for assent. The proposed change would therefore still require further legislative action and presidential approval before becoming law.
Beyond increasing UBEC’s funding pool, the proposed reform seeks to change how some of the money reaches beneficiaries.
The legislation provides for direct channelling of intervention funds to local government education authorities, rather than relying exclusively on the existing state-level structure. The aim is to improve the speed and effectiveness with which resources reach schools and communities. This could represent a significant shift in the management of basic-education interventions, particularly for communities where funding has historically been affected by administrative bottlenecks. The scale of the proposed investment reflects the size of Nigeria’s basic education system. According to data cited, the sector has more than 47 million pupils, over 171,000 schools and approximately 1.69 million teachers. The additional funding could therefore provide substantial resources for infrastructure, teaching materials, teacher development and efforts to improve access to education. However, the size of the allocation alone will not determine whether the reform succeeds. Nigeria has long faced challenges including inadequate school infrastructure, shortages of qualified teachers, poor learning environments and the large number of children outside the formal education system.
The proposed funding increase could provide a major opportunity to address those problems, but effective implementation, monitoring and accountability will be critical. Previous increases in UBEC grants have already resulted in larger allocations to states. In 2024, for example, the Federal Government raised the annual UBE matching grant available to states to more than N3.5 billion, requiring states to provide counterpart funding. The proposed reform would go substantially further by expanding the federal intervention pool itself. The reform comes as the Federal Government seeks to overhaul Nigeria’s education system across the basic and tertiary levels. In December 2025, the Presidency said Nigeria’s overall education budget had risen substantially under the Tinubu administration, while UBEC had distributed billions of naira in matching grants and supported teacher-development programmes.
The new UBEC proposal could become another major component of that broader reform agenda. But with the Senate and House still needing to reconcile their positions, the N3.42 trillion figure remains a projection rather than an available budge The immediate task is for lawmakers to resolve the difference between the Senate’s five per cent proposal and the House’s four per cent version.
If the five per cent provision survives the legislative process and receives presidential assent, UBEC’s annual intervention funding could increase dramatically. The challenge would then shift from securing money to ensuring that the additional resources reach classrooms and produce measurable improvements in learning. The proposed UBEC reform could raise federal basic-education funding from roughly N1.37 trillion to N3.42 trillion annually. If enacted, the measure would represent a historic expansion of resources for Nigeria’s basic education system but its success will ultimately depend on transparent disbursement, effective oversight and the ability to turn larger allocations into better educational outcomes.
