The Federal Government of Nigeria is in the process of securing a $500 million loan from the World Bank aimed at improving basic education across the country, particularly focusing on enhancing learning outcomes and reducing the number of out-of-school children.
The loan is part of the World Bank’s HOPE for Quality Basic Education for All initiative, designed to tackle Nigeria’s long-standing education challenges. The total project cost is estimated at $554 million, with $500 million expected from the World Bank and an additional $54 million from a Global Partnership for Education (GPE) grant.
The Programme Information Document (PID) indicates that the HOPE-Education project aligns with Nigeria’s Universal Basic Education (UBE) framework, prioritizing early childhood, primary, and junior secondary education.
The project will target reducing the staggering number of 17.1 million children aged 5 to 14 who are currently out of school, with a specific focus on closing the regional education gap between northern and southern Nigeria, where enrollment rates in the north lag significantly behind.
The project is expected to be formally approved by March 2025, and implementation will be overseen by the Federal Ministries of Finance and Education, along with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC). The loan will be used for capacity-building initiatives to improve the quality of teaching, provide grants to community-based schools, and fund much-needed infrastructure development.
This funding is part of Nigeria’s broader Human Capital Development strategy, which aims to build a skilled workforce by 2030. Complementary efforts such as the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme are designed to alleviate the financial burden on parents and encourage greater school enrollment.
The HOPE-Education initiative is part of a larger framework that includes two related projects: HOPE-Governance (HOPE-GOV), which seeks to improve the management and distribution of resources for education and healthcare, and HOPE-Primary Health Care (HOPE-PHC), which aims to enhance the quality and reach of healthcare services. The World Bank has already approved $500 million for HOPE-GOV and $570 million for HOPE-PHC, with HOPE-Education being the final component, set for approval on March 20, 2025.
Under President Bola Tinubu’s administration, Nigeria has secured $6.45 billion in World Bank loans over the past 16 months to fund various critical projects. These include $750 million for the power sector, $500 million for women’s empowerment, $700 million for girls’ education, and $750 million for renewable energy initiatives.
Speaking at the Nigeria Development Update launch in Abuja, World Bank Country Director Dr. Ndiame Diop reaffirmed the institution’s commitment to supporting Nigeria’s reform agenda. He emphasized that the World Bank is prepared to offer additional loans and technical assistance to both federal and state governments.
Data from the Debt Management Office (DMO) shows that as of March 31, 2024, Nigeria owed the World Bank $15.59 billion. Additionally, the country has become the third-largest borrower from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessional lending arm, with its debt to the IDA increasing from $14.3 billion in the 2023 fiscal year to $16.5 billion in 2024—a 14.4% rise. This has elevated Nigeria from the fourth-largest to the third-largest IDA borrower globally.
