Abiodun Assents to Ogun Education, Skills Trust Fund Law

Ogun State Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun on Friday assented to the State Education and Skills Trust Fund Bill, establishing a statutory mechanism for sustained financing of education infrastructure, teacher support, bursaries and skills development beyond the state’s regular annual budget.

The signing took place at the Governor’s Office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta. Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Oludaisi Elemide, told journalists afterwards that the legislation would strengthen the delivery of quality education and improve learning outcomes across the state. He said the bill, which followed extensive consultations with the public and stakeholders, was designed to make education “more meaningful, more qualitative and more constructive” and more encompassing.

Elemide stressed that government alone could not shoulder the full cost of quality education and called for greater private-sector participation. “The private people too need to contribute. After all, they are the ones that will inherit these people after being educated,” he said. He expressed optimism that full implementation would consolidate Ogun’s position as a leading education destination in Nigeria.

Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu, explained that the Trust Fund would cover both formal and informal education, with particular emphasis on skills acquisition and vocational training. It will provide an additional financing window for school infrastructure, bursaries, teacher support and facility maintenance. “We have put in place a mechanism of ensuring that education can also still be funded through another source different from the normal budgetary allocation,” he said.

Arigbabu noted that the state had operated under an executive framework signed by the governor three years earlier. Passage of the bill by the House of Assembly now gives the Trust Fund stronger legal backing. The law is also expected to facilitate the integration of informal education by modernising the traditional apprenticeship system.

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The administration has already trained more than 9,000 young people in various vocations under existing skills-development programmes. The new Fund is intended to expand these efforts and support wider vocational and technical training across the state.
In a subsequent social media post, Governor Abiodun confirmed the assent, stating that the law establishes a sustainable funding framework to support school infrastructure, bursaries, teacher development, vocational training and the modernisation of the traditional apprenticeship system. He reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to expanding access to quality education, employment opportunities, entrepreneurship and self-reliance.

The bill, formally titled a law to establish the Ogun State Education and Skills Trust Fund for rejuvenating education infrastructure and facilitating skills, was passed by the House of Assembly in April after committee work and stakeholder engagement. Student bodies, including the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and the National Association of University Students, have welcomed the development, describing it as an important step toward sustainable financing and stronger pathways from education to employability. They urged transparent and accountable implementation involving government, the private sector, educational institutions and development partners.

The new law is expected to create a more durable institutional arrangement for mobilising resources into education and skills development, reducing sole reliance on annual budgetary allocations and supporting long-term human-capital growth in Ogun State.