Federal Government invests N220bn in medical education, plans additional N121bn

The minister announced plans for an additional N121bn investment in 2026 to further expand medical education infrastructure nationwide. These investments are part of education sector reforms under President Bola Tinubu's administration, aimed at increasing healthcare professionals and addressing manpower shortages. The N220bn funding covered infrastructure upgrades, construction of medical simulation laboratories, and rehabilitation of medical schools and student hostels.

Specifically, N72bn was allocated to 18 medical schools for infrastructure development, with each receiving N4bn, and an additional N1.5bn each for hostel accommodation. Furthermore, N40bn was invested in building eight state-of-the-art medical simulation laboratories across the six geopolitical zones, each costing about N5bn. For 2026, the N121bn will be allocated to six more medical schools, N10bn for hostels, N24bn to expand these medical schools, and N56bn to equip 21 new medical schools.

The government's objective is to train more doctors, pharmacists, dentists, and nurses to strengthen the healthcare system. Alausa also mentioned a N250bn intervention for student accommodation across tertiary institutions, with 90 institutions receiving N2bn each for 500-bed hostels, and