As Your Federal Minister, I Will Fix Nigeria’s Educational System

I am not running for President of Nigeria but I desire to be a federal minister in our nation. There are many ministries that I can  transform. If I make it into the ministry of education, I will work to redesign the architecture of our educational systems.

My #1 priority will be to deepen primary & secondary education attainment and quality. China hits close to 99% primary education enrollment with less than 10% university attainment. They put all the good money in basic education because it is the bedrock of any nation. America does the same (90% attainment). 

In Nigeria, we largely  flip it, massively subsidizing university education (which is great) but, unfortunately, paying little attention to basic education. That is why a primary school teacher earns $50 per month! 

Under the direction of the soon-Mr. President, we will put massive resources into basic education, drawing from the current budget structure. But as that money goes, we will measure outcomes and drive accountability.

There are many areas we will fix. Looking at the universal basic education fund, you see disparities; some states have literacy rates below 20% while some hit more than 90% but the funding mechanism is largely the same per child, across the nation. So, what happened in some states? We will close that loophole. If Nigeria is sending the same amount per child to states, we expect outcomes to correlate and equilibrate.

Looking at this plot from the government, released a few years ago, there is no way you can spend the same amount per child, and have this type of outcome. That would be fixed.

At the university level, we will work and present a bill to adjust Nigeria’s tax system with some special deductions for education. Every partnership or donations to universities will become tax deductible, instead of just pure expense. My goal will be to use that vehicle to attract at least $5 billion into the university system purse, by making it easier for local and global firms to work with Nigerian universities (overall, we can hit $10 billion across all levels of our educational systems). If Huawei works with UNN and commits $10m in a partnership research, it can deduct 100% of that; if Microsoft partners with ABU for $20m, it will deduct, etc. Our tax model will activate interests to partner with schools, by stimulating new incentives for companies.

My strategic goal will be encouraging companies to become partners with universities by bringing taxation into their planning models. In other words, if Microsoft wants to set up a design center for $100m, can it spend that money in Nigeria and still deduct it by working with FUTA, FUTO, FUTMinna consortium instead of going alone?

More so, I believe that we can unlock billions of naira internally via local companies through tax structuring. If we do these things and more ideas I will present to Mr. President, the university system will have resources, and our economy will become more dynamic as university-industry relationships will deepen.

Think about it this way: if Innoson Motors wants to hire 1,000 technicians for its Owerri Naze factory. Today, the firm has to recruit and train them outside the university/polytechnic system. Let us assume that the training will cost $2 million; that will be an expense in the balance sheet. 

But under my plan, Innoson Motors can partner with The Polytechnic Nekede to train those 1,000 young people. It will spend that $2 million with the school but in its tax form, it can still deduct that, essentially reducing its taxable income. Magically, you have created an incentive for Innoson to partner with Poly Nekede, and the school will then have the resources it needs.

You can also see this within the window of tax credit which will offset corporate tax even if it is not deductible on  taxable income. 

Restructuring our tax code will unlock $$millions, and as your minister, we can rebuild many fundamental architectures in Nigeria.  ASUU will have resources but it has to work. We will not have strikes anymore as our educational system will become a virtuoso circle of innovation and human development. Today’s structure makes no sense and we will replace it!

The full and comprehensive ideas are contained in my 3T2030 Plan for A Greater Nigeria where I have articulated how to grow Nigeria’s economy from its current sub-$500 billion to $3 trillion by 2030. I will be sharing in piecemeal my ideas across sectors.

In my document, I explain how common sense policies can rewire the structures of our market systems. Under my plan, Microsoft’s planned $100m investment in Nigeria would not have been pure expenses in Redmond USA; I will get it to work with FUTO-FUTA-FUTM consortium ( for at least $20m), and use the tax code to make it tax deductible. That way, these schools will have resources, etc. If we do that, Microsoft can even commit $200m into Nigeria because the more it commits, the more it saves!

Comment on LinkedIn, FB Feeds

Comment: What about the introduction of Federal Student loan.

My Response: At primary and secondary, education has to be FREE. But at the university level, we will provide ways to help people that cannot pay. But it cannot be a “pure loan”. If you borrowed N1,000 in 1995 to attend UNN and you have to pay for it now, I am not sure you are fair to the lender. N1,000 of 2022 is not the same as N1,000 of 1995. (In FUTO, my tuition was N25 in 1998 to give an idea how things have crashed.)

So, looking at currency, you have to make sure the loans track inflation plus prime set by CBN, at least from the 4th year of the loan. With that, you will see lenders show interests unlike today where no one wants to do that because it makes no business sense. We will have policies and executive orders (plus fixes at the National Assembly) to make sure the system works. It will be actionable leadership from those who understand markets.

Comment 2: To reach 3 trillion USD dollars by 2030,  growth rates need to be almost 25% per year over 8 years.  I would be interested to have a look at your economic policies.

My Response: Of course, we have lost some years since I crafted it. But if I document all farmlands in Nigeria and make it possible that 100% are transferable with ease, I can unlock more than $100b in assets which can be used for credits within 6 months. If that happens, those classified as “poor” by the World Bank will become low middle class because most have farmlands they inherited. My model is that banks will move into rural areas, and using those new assets, those men and women can access credits. That translation will anchor a massive boom in rural stimulating economic opportunity. Nigeria’s wealth remains latent because the wealth has no velocity (easy to buy and sell). We will fix that.

Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.