Nigeria and Italy have strengthened collaboration on a proposed Global Partnership for Education (GPE) campaign aimed at mobilising $5 billion to finance education programmes worldwide.
The initiative was discussed on Wednesday in New York at the Multiply Possibility High-Level Event, tagged “A New Era for Education Financing,” held on the sidelines of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in a video message, said the GPE vision aligns with his administration’s agenda to improve educational outcomes through greater investment in access and capacity building for teachers.
Tinubu also commended stakeholders in the Global Partnership for Education for their efforts to accelerate education financing globally.
Representing the President at the event, Vice President Kashim Shettima said education should be treated as an investment in Nigeria’s economic future, productivity and national prosperity.
“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,” Shettima said.
He said the Tinubu administration had substantially increased resources devoted to education since 2023 while pursuing reforms to strengthen basic education financing, expand foundational learning and improve access to tertiary and technical education.
“Since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office in 2023, our Administration has substantially 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.
Shettima said the Nigerian Education Loan Fund was also helping to widen access to higher education while strengthening the connection between education, skills, employment and enterprise.
“Through the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, we are widening access to higher education, while strengthening the link between education, skills, employment and enterprise,” the Vice President said.
He said Nigeria was looking beyond traditional budgetary allocations to mobilise additional resources for education.
According to Shettima, President Tinubu had directed that liquid funds recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, once legally cleared and free from litigation, be channelled to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund.
He added that the Federal Executive Council had recently approved consideration of unclaimed dividends and dormant funds for the same purpose, subject to relevant legal requirements.
Shettima said the steps demonstrated Nigeria’s commitment to mobilising every responsible and lawful domestic source available to finance education.
“This demonstrates our conviction that financing education requires the mobilisation of every responsible and lawful domestic source available,” he said.
The Vice President also highlighted Nigeria’s partnership with the World Bank and GPE through HOPE-EDU, noting that the programme was expected to reach millions of Nigerian children and teachers.
“The programme is expected to reach approximately 29 million children and 500,000 teachers across Nigeria,” Shettima said.
He said international support through GPE would complement domestic investment rather than replace it.
“This is precisely why GPE matters. GPE does not replace national investment; it multiplies it,” he said.
Shettima said the ambition was to mobilise US$5 billion for GPE and use the funding to unlock additional resources for education in partner countries.
“The ambition before us is to mobilise US$5 billion for GPE and, through that investment, unlock additional financing for education in partner countries,” he said.
The Vice President stressed the need for domestic resources to remain the foundation of education financing while development assistance, concessional finance, philanthropy and innovative financing provide additional support.
“Domestic resources must remain the anchor, complemented by development assistance, concessional finance, philanthropy and innovative financing,” he said.
Shettima said Nigeria’s young population could become one of its greatest economic assets if young people had access to quality education, relevant skills and meaningful opportunities.
He said, “Young people have access to quality education, relevant skills and meaningful opportunities.”
The Vice President also called for stronger international cooperation in response to declining global development assistance.
“The answer to declining global aid must therefore be smarter multilateralism: using scarce international resources to leverage much larger investments,” Shettima said.
He urged stakeholders to ensure that the GPE campaign went beyond fundraising and became a renewed commitment to human capital development.
“This must not be merely a fundraising exercise, but a renewed compact for human capital, bringing together national leadership, international partnership and responsible financing so that every child has the opportunity to learn, thrive and contribute to their country’s future,” he said.
Shettima expressed Nigeria’s appreciation to the Italian government and GPE for joining the campaign, stressing that Nigeria was participating not only to seek greater international investment but also to demonstrate its own commitment to education.
“We are not participating merely to ask the international community to invest more in education but to demonstrate that we are investing in education ourselves,” he said.
Earlier, Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, praised President Tinubu’s leadership and Nigeria’s determination to improve educational outcomes across all levels.
She also called on partners in the global alliance to demonstrate greater commitment to reversing the trend of declining education outcomes in developing countries.
UN Deputy Secretary-General, Dr Amina Mohammed, thanked partners for supporting efforts to improve education financing in developing countries.
Mohammed said the changes being sought by stakeholders must begin with the choices governments make.
She called on international financial institutions to support committed countries in creating the fiscal space needed to improve educational outcomes.
She also stressed the importance of investing in teachers, saying their motivation and training remained critical to achieving better results.
Chair of the GPE Board of Directors, Dr Jakaya Kikwete, said accelerating education financing was necessary to address the growing funding gap in the sector.
Kikwete said the event served as a reminder that education remained central to human rights, security and peace.
He said GPE was responding to the decline in development assistance for education and the widening financing gap, stressing the need for systems that deliver tangible and desirable outcomes.
Girls’ education activist, Malala Yousafzai, called for stronger collaboration in ideas and resources, saying global partnerships could deliver greater results than isolated interventions.
She urged governments and multilateral organisations to commit more resources to gender equality in education and address the specific needs of girls, particularly in developing countries.
At the high-level event, governments and donors made contributions towards the education of at least 370 million children globally.
The government of Italy pledged €50 million to GPE programmes and interventions as part of the global education financing campaign.