Vice President Kashim Shettima formally launched the Aliko Dangote Foundation Education Scholarship Initiative in Lagos on Thursday. The programme will provide N100 billion in annual support for education and is planned to run as a N1 trillion investment over the next ten years.
Shettima described the scheme as a major effort to widen access to quality learning across Nigeria. He asked stakeholders to renew their commitment to giving every child a real chance to succeed, and he praised the founder’s commitment to long term support. “education is a burden carried by those with the knowledge of its power to transform. “Now is the time to recommit to building a future in which every Nigerian child has a fair shot at becoming the best version of themselves. “Let us live our lives so that posterity will remember us not for the offices we held or the titles we bore. Posterity must remember us for the doors we opened and the lives we transformed.”
He called on the private sector to see itself as a partner in education and warned that Nigeria’s growing youth population will only be an asset if it is educated. “a youthful population is a global asset only when it is educated. Without education, it becomes a threat to itself and to the nation that houses it.
Shettima said the administration has taken concrete steps to widen access and raise standards in recent months. He cited the launch of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, stronger support for UBEC to boost basic education, expanded TETFUND activity for tertiary institutions, faster roll out of Technical and Vocational Education and Training, and the mainstreaming of digital learning as key reforms.
He urged partners to move beyond words and support practical measures to close longstanding gaps in the system. He said deliberate, sustained action is needed rather than short term fixes if Nigeria is to break the cycle of poor outcomes.
The vice‑president praised Alhaji Aliko Dangote for his philanthropic leadership. He called Dangote a national figure of great consequence and said the foundation’s scheme is structural, long term and generational in nature. “Dangote’s philanthropy is not episodic. His philanthropy is structural. “His philanthropy is generational. His philanthropy is visionary. He is not only the largest private employer of labour in Nigeria, he has also become the most consequential private investor in the rescue of our most critical sector, education.”
At the event, Mr Dangote outlined how the annual funding will support students and strengthen schools across levels. The launch marks a high profile private sector contribution to the national drive to treat education as an urgent national priority.
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