Educational institutions across the northern region are the greatest beneficiaries of the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), an intervention programme targeted at eliminating barriers to education financing, under the Renew Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.
Similarly, the recently Oncology and Cancer Centre located in the Federal Teaching Hospital Katsina (FTHK) and similar ones in Kaduna and Enugu are some of the major milestones recorded under the Tinubu Administration.
These disclosures were made by the Renewed Hope Ambassadors (RHA) at the media briefing in Abuja Monday ahead of the tour of the Northwest region scheduled to begin soon.
At the briefing were the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Special Duties to the President who is also the RHA Director of Media, Tunde Rahman, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Tope Ajayi, Dr Sulaiman Haruna and Rabiu Ibrahim, both aides to the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris.
Also at the briefing were officials of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Services and that of transportation who spoke on the ministries’ achievements under the Renewed Hope Agenda.
Addressing journalists at the gathering, Ibrahim said: “In Kaduna, you recall President Bola Ahmed Tinubu commissioned Oncology and Cancer Centre. Similar centres are also in Enugu and Katsina. In fact, the one in Katsina is embedded in the Umaru Musa University Teaching Hospital.
“And for NELFUND, this is one area the North as a whole has tremendously benefitted. The record is there, about 58 per cent of the loan is been accessed by the higher institutions in the north. This makes it possible for the students to pay their tuition fees and also have some stipends to meet a few other needs.”
Checks by Blueprint.ng revealed that of the top ten universities whose students are beneficiaries, University of Uyo in Akwa Ibom state, ranks the least with the nine others coming from the North.
According to a NELFUND-sourced data, University of Maiduguri, Borno state(Northeast) tops with 85,050 beneficiaries, Bayero University Kano (North west) with 54,419, Federal University Dutsinma in Katsina state (North west) with 50,737, and Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Kaduna state, also in the Northwest with a figure of 46,663.
The rest are University of Ilorin, Kwara state (North central) posting 44,735, University of Jos, Plateau state, also in the North central bosting of 35,913, while Danfodiyo University Sokoto (North west), and Federal University Kashere in Gombe state of the Northeast zone have 35,714 and 34, 208 respectively.
Ibrahim, who said agriculture, an area the north has comparative advantage, received a major boost as the Bank of Agriculture which used to have a weak capital base, now has a capital base of about N1.5 trillion, describing it as “a big one for this administration.”
…On rail projects
On the rail projects, Director of Rail Transport Services, Federal Ministry of Transportation, Finbarr Zirra told the journalists what was done in the sector so far under the current administration.
He said: “Now, we’re having Kaduna to Abuja, hopefully by the end of the year, that sector will be linked. Then, the other contract, this one is being handled by the Chinese company. There’s another one, the Portuguese, who are handling Kano to Katsina, to Jibia, and also to Maradi. Maradi is 40 kilometres into Niger. There’s a branch line starting from Kano to Dutse about 100 kilometres.
“The total length of this is about 400 kilometres. And work is progressively going on. I hope that by the end of the year, from Kano to Katsina will be completed.”
“Of course, apart from the infrastructure, we have the component of the rolling stock. That’s the train itself that will fly those routes. Those two are in the pipeline. By the time we finish them, they will be ready for movement. Now, we see that the importance of the railway sector cannot be overemphasised, because, like I said, it helps us to save our roads.
“So, the importance to Kano as a hub is that at Kano now, you are going to get a train line linking Kano to Katsina to Maradi. You are going to get a train line from Kaduna to Kano. You are going to get a train line from Dutse to Kano. So, it’s a major hub where a lot of activities will take place. And historically, we know that Kano is a commercial city.
“So, the train, when it comes, there will be safety and movement. When it comes, it will affect even the cost of materials. It has multiple effects. You know, the indirect effects from train line is so enormous that by the time we start coming, we’ll feel the impact in other sectors.
“Now, like I said, there will be dry ports along the line, so that we’ll be able to harness all those activities or commercial investment towards ensuring that with seamless effort, we’re able to bring them together. Now, also, the train sector, if you say that it is cheaper compared to others.
“Most of the time, when you ask people, how much money are you making? Well, we make money, but the effect is felt much more in other sectors.
“Now, there’s a high-speed train being proposed. That time, we start from Lagos to Kano, and then also Lagos to Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt to Kano. So you can see that Kano, northwest is central to what the government is doing – investing so much in that region.
“The Kano-Maradi railway project is another huge investment and like I said, it’s a standard gauge because the colonial masters build what we call narrow. This one is a standard gauge. The difference between this one is that it’s faster and it’s modern, you know? So we are doing what we think is the best,” the director further added.
…Onanuga on reasons for the tour
Earlier, Mr. Onanuga spoke on the projects embarked on by the Tinubu administration, and that there was need to showcase them and correct impression in some quarters that the government was not doing anything in the north.
Explaining the reason for the tour, Onanuga said: “This government has done a lot and we want to showcase what we’ve done in the past almost three years now. So what we are doing in starting this journey -national tour is to try to showcase what the Tinubu-led administration has done in the past three years. And this briefing is supposed to give us some window into all those programmes that have been executed across the country.
“They are projects that are in fact directed on our people. If government has built a road somewhere according to its movement, it will help the farmers, it will help the economy. So these are things that we want to go and showcase everywhere.”
“The pattern will be that when we go to a state or a zone or we reach a particular state, we are not just showcasing the programme of the federal government but also the programme of the state, because they are all connected.
“Many of the states since Tinubu came into office, they are now able to do a lot of capital projects because they are getting more funds from the centre. And that’s helping them to dream big and embark on many projects which would not have been if the government has not embarked on some major reforms to make money available to the sub-nationals and the local councils,” he further stated.
Also, the RHA spokesman, Mr Rahman, while recalling that Tinubu’s campaign in the 2023 general election was hinged on his personal pedigree and achievements of his predecessor in office, said “this time around, he will be running on his own achievements, and we are saying that a lot has been done.”
He said: “There is so much to showcase, particularly in the northwest. The northwest is very critical and that’s why we are starting from the northwest. We need you people to be with us when we go on that tour so that you can see physically what has been done.
“You can see the achievements yourself and then what we expect is that when you see these achievements, please write on them. Please speak on them. Please invite people to also talk on these achievements, because these achievements are things that have been carefully planned with a view to bringing development to the North.
“Over the years, a lot of people have always complained that not much has been done in the North. Now, we have things to showcase. So I implore you to articulate what you will be seeing beginning from Thursday, so that Nigerians can be convinced about what has been done by Mr President.”
…Health sector
And on the health sector, the Senior Special Assistant to the Minister of Health, Chinedu Moghalu, said as at Q3 2025, the ministry had achieved 37 out of the 41 indicators set out by the present administration.
Speaking along similar line, the representative of the National Coordinator, Presidential Initiative for Unlocking Healthcare Value Chains (PVAC), Nasiru Mohammed, said the current government transformed the healthcare sector by making it a productive economy.
Mohammed, who hailed the signing of an executive order on local manufacturing in 2024 as the game changer, said: “It does so by one main key thing, which is to incentivise private sector to locally produce pharmaceuticals and it does so in two key ways. One, shaping the market, making sure that locally produced medicines and pharmaceutical products are made available to each and every Nigerian competitively and produced locally by Nigerian firms.
“At the beginning of the administration, we conducted as a presidential initiative, detailed analytical studies on the healthcare sector when it comes down to local manufacturing. And we identified that by introducing this policy intervention, we would then make local manufacturing competitive for the private sector to locally produce pharmaceutical products and medicines in such a way that it is even competitive as those imported.”
