How Tinubu is ensuring equitable access to public services, By Chinedu Moghalu

Through dramatic increases in budgetary allocations and various initiatives targeting Nigerians across the various economic strata, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is pursuing broad-based access to public services in the country.

The 29th of next month will mark the second anniversary of the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The last two years have witnessed a seismic shift toward market economic policy. We assessed the performance of the economic reform in the first part of this series, showing that recent macroeconomic data supports the assertion that the economy is already recovering. This is despite the fact that the administration has a long-term view on the benefits of the reform. The second part of the series focused on the transformation in the infrastructural landscape due to the projects being implemented by the government.

This final part of the series assesses the delivery of public services, including education and healthcare, in the last two years. Public services are vital for the citizens and they influence the optimal performance of the economy. Public services, such as healthcare and education, are also known as social services because of their impact on the well-being of society. In the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, which try to set the pace and best practices in sustainable economic progress, spending on public services, on average, accounts for 20 per cent of GDP.

For many years, public service delivery in Nigeria has been challenged by underfunding and inefficiency in the budgetary and project implementation processes. Budgetary allocations for education and healthcare fail to meet the global benchmarks and are often delayed, leading to high levels of spending inefficiency. Lack of infrastructure has also meant that people in the suburban and rural areas received far less coverage of public services. As the country relies more and more on private provision of services amid growing poverty, the more the citizens are deprived of access to services that could enable them to be healthy and able to compete for economic opportunities.

There is no strategy for addressing the general low level of access to quality public services in Nigeria without dramatically increasing the level of public investment in them. It is this realisation that has driven the reform to increase government revenue through taxation and end the expensive subsidies on petrol and foreign exchange by the Tinubu administration. These policies have enabled the administration to commence the all-important increase in budgetary spending on education and health.

In the 2025 Federal Government’s budget, allocation for education was N3.52 trillion – a 304 per cent increase compared to 2022. Allocation for health rose to N2.48 trillion, up 242 per cent. These are not just headline numbers; they signal a shift in national priorities. Education and health are no longer being treated as budgetary afterthoughts – they are being financed as tools of transformation.

In healthcare, the government launched the Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative (NHSRII) in 2023, backed by a historic compact signed by all stakeholders and witnessed by the President. It is built around one purpose: saving lives and delivering care without pain – financial or physical. For the first time ever, Nigeria is implementing a full Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) in health, anchored on the principle of “one plan, one budget, one report.” This whole-of-government and whole-of-society model brings together federal and state governments, development partners, civil society, and traditional and religious institutions under a unified results framework – breaking the silos that have long weakened service delivery and accountability.

Already, 862 Primary Healthcare Centres have been revitalised, bringing essential services closer to where people live. An additional 2,500 centres are being upgraded. In Katsina, 23-year-old Hadiza no longer walks 17 kilometres to the next town to deliver her baby. Her community PHC now has trained birth attendants and a clean delivery bed – simple, life-saving changes that used to be a dream.

To accelerate reductions in maternal mortality, the government launched the Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation and Initiatives (MAMII) during the 2024 Joint Annual Review (JAR). Empaneled by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), MAMII targets 172 Local Government Areas across 33 states which, although representing only 20 per cent of LGAs nationwide, account for an estimated 55 per cent of Nigeria’s maternal mortality burden. This disparity underscores the urgency of targeted maternal health interventions, and MAMII provides a structured mechanism for delivering integrated, life-saving services to the women and newborns most at risk.

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In the education sector, the administration is pursuing various reform initiatives towards building a knowledge-based economy. To remove the financial barrier to access to higher education, the government launched the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) in 2024. As of February, over N42.8 billion has now been disbursed to more than 440,000 applicants, demonstrating sustained uptake and expanded access.

The government has also revitalised the National Fistula Programme, providing surgical repair and post-operative care for women affected by obstetric fistula. Delivered under the NHSRII framework, this initiative restores dignity to vulnerable women and offers pathways for social and economic reintegration. As of 2025, the free fistula repair programme has reached 2,216 women across 18 fistula treatment centres, with 1,143 beneficiaries enrolled into health insurance. In parallel, over 3,734 women have received free obstetric care nationwide – part of a broader maternal health effort to reduce preventable deaths and expand equitable access.

Millions have been treated for neglected tropical diseases. The World Health Organisation has recognised the success of this initiative in lifting vulnerable populations out of the health crisis. Nigeria’s Joint Annual Review (JAR) and the emerging national health performance scorecard are helping to institutionalise accountability and transparency across the system.

Insurance coverage has expanded to 19.8 million Nigerians – mothers, traders, children – people who, just two years ago, had no access to care. In February 2024, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was appointed by the African Union as Champion for Human Resources for Health and Community Health Delivery – an acknowledgment of his leadership in driving systemic health workforce reform. Building on this continental mandate, the Federal Government approved the deployment of 774 National Health Fellows in January, with training commencing the following month. Selected from every local government area in Nigeria, these fellows have been strategically positioned to strengthen primary healthcare delivery nationwide, while complementing broader efforts to improve workforce retention, expand return-to-practice pathways for Nigerian health professionals abroad, and institutionalise real-time personnel tracking through national registries.

One of them, James from Langtang North, returned home after years of waiting for an opportunity to serve. Today, he’s leading immunisation sessions in villages where vaccines hadn’t been seen in months.

In the education sector, the administration is pursuing various reform initiatives towards building a knowledge-based economy. To remove the financial barrier to access to higher education, the government launched the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) in 2024. As of February, over N42.8 billion has now been disbursed to more than 440,000 applicants, demonstrating sustained uptake and expanded access.

To combat poverty and improve education access, the Almajiri Integration Programme successfully integrated 1.2 million Almajiri children into the formal education system in 2024. This initiative is now being scaled under the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI), which targets the reintegration of 10 million out-of-school children by 2027. In the FCT alone, 25,000 Almajiri children have been enrolled into the public school system. 12-year-old Musa used to spend his mornings begging in Gwagwalada. Today, he walks to school in a UBEC uniform, reciting multiplication tables. His mother says he now dreams of becoming a teacher.

A comprehensive curriculum reform has been introduced to ensure that Nigerian students are equipped with the necessary skills to thrive in the 21st-century economy. The reform focuses on STEM education, vocational skills, and entrepreneurship. This has now evolved into a broader national drive under STEMM – Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medical Sciences – with a fourfold increase in the number of beneficiaries across key disciplines. High-impact interventions are supporting 18 medical schools across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones to revamp infrastructure and expand student intake in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and dentistry.

Also, the government has launched nationwide training programmes for teachers to improve the quality of education by ensuring that teachers are equipped to deliver modern, high-quality instruction across all levels. So far, 978,800 teachers are being trained in phases, supported by the distribution of two million teaching aids and 103 million textbooks, under a national effort to close foundational learning gaps.

The country still has a long way to go in expanding access and quality of public services. But the administration of President Tinubu has initiated many reforms that must be sustained. The challenges in implementing such reforms in Nigeria, including bringing public accountability to the process, should be addressed to maximise the benefits of these policies. While it is important to maintain the reform momentum, stakeholders must also deepen their commitment based on the results already being achieved.

Mrs Onome, a primary school teacher in Delta State, received her first ever government-distributed textbook set last year – after 15 years of teaching.

Mr President has also demonstrated strong leadership in unlocking new financing models for public education. The HOPE for Quality Basic Education for All programme (HOPE-EDU) represents Nigeria’s first access to the Global Partnership for Education Multiplier Grant and is backed by $552.18 million in external financing – comprising $500 million from the World Bank (IDA) and $52.18 million from GPE. The programme adopts a performance-driven, equity-focused approach and has positioned Nigeria as a continental leader in foundational learning reform. Through HOPE-EDU, the government aims to construct 13,000 new classrooms, rehabilitate existing infrastructure, establish non-formal learning centres, and train over 400,000 teachers under a structured pedagogy framework.

With over $609.7 million budgeted for implementation in 2025 alone, total basic education investments under HOPE-EDU are projected to reach $3.72 billion by 2029. The Nigeria Education Data Initiative (NEDI), now being institutionalised across State Universal Basic Education Boards and Local Government Education Authorities, enables real-time tracking of school-level data and was profiled at the 2024 World Bank Spring Meetings as a model for systems-level reform. These efforts, through the HOPE-EDU and other NESRI strategic initiatives, are anchored in state-level School Improvement Plans and accountability frameworks and are designed to reduce Nigeria’s estimated 14.8 million out-of-school children and reverse the country’s learning poverty at scale.

To shield the most vulnerable from the immediate shocks of reform, over four million households have already received N75,000 each through conditional cash transfers. Skills training under the Renewed Hope Employment Initiative is equipping over 93,000 young Nigerians with tools to launch small businesses, grow food, offer services, or work with dignity. Water systems are being rehabilitated. Toilets and boreholes are appearing where there were none. These are the real dividends of reform – not just numbers, but tangible improvements in daily life.

Other impactful initiatives to deliver public goods to Nigerians include the investment of N1.5 trillion in upgrading water infrastructure and providing clean water to five million Nigerians in underserved regions, a nationwide waste management programme, and training and employment of over 200,000 young Nigerians in sectors such as technology, agriculture, and construction through the National Youth Empowerment Scheme.

Across both health and education, federal dashboards now support real-time tracking of programme delivery. By Q4 2024, NHSRII and HOPE-EDU milestones were already being tied to results-based financing and independently verified by development partners.

The country still has a long way to go in expanding access and quality of public services. But the administration of President Tinubu has initiated many reforms that must be sustained. The challenges in implementing such reforms in Nigeria, including bringing public accountability to the process, should be addressed to maximise the benefits of these policies. While it is important to maintain the reform momentum, stakeholders must also deepen their commitment based on the results already being achieved.

Chinedu Moghalu is the senior special adviser on Strategic Communication, Stakeholder Engagement and Advocacy to the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare.