Stakeholders laud Tinubu for UBEC’s boss appointment, praise reforms in primary education

Education and Tech Coalition of Activists and Social Entrepreneurs have applauded President Bola Tinubu for the appointment of the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Aisha Garba, over significant reforms that have brought significant solutions to primary education across the country.

The coalition, through its co-chairs, Olaonipekun Kazeem, the Executive Director of the Focus Teens Foundation and Olamide Apejoye, Head of the Developing Engineering Leaders stated this in a joint statement on Monday, August 4, 2025.

The coalition stated that President Tinubu went out of his way to recruit Aisha Garba from the World Bank, signalling the seriousness of his administration towards educational reforms in Nigeria.

The statement partly read, “UBEC under the leadership of Aisha Garba as its Executive Secretary have implemented reforms that have directly impacted basic education across the country. Out-of-school children are getting back in classrooms, while some are accessing school for the first time. Her leadership has also improved the quality of education through the upgrade of learning tools and teaching in order to increase positive outcomes.

“This would have been impossible without the help and support of President Tinubu, who went out of his way to bring Dr Garba from the World Bank, signalling how important his administration is keen on education reforms in Nigeria.”

Similarly, founder of Alpha Reach, JJ Omojuwa, in a post on X earlier today, also commended the executive secretary, Aisha Garba for being able to allow states in the country access grants to improve the quality of basic education.

He said, “For two decades, an ordinary document created a stumbling block for states to access matching grants. This meant stalled access to education for many children. Aisha changed that!”

Omojuwa added, “She reformed the system by removing long-standing bureaucratic cogs and helped to open access to the states who are now able to do a lot more than ever as they plug into the UBEC matching grants.

“This has led to over 60% fund utilisation – a record, impacted about 3 million children, led to the distribution of 6m books to primary schools nationwide, about half a million library materials and other such interventions. States now feel more like partners in education development with the FG, all thanks to reforms led by Dr Aisha Garba.”

He also noted that Garba had managed a $3 Billion project portfolio across multiple countries whilst working with the World Bank, supervising the design, execution, and evaluation of large-scale education and skills development programs in Nigeria, Kenya, Somalia, Ghana and many other countries.

He stated that despite being a few months in, Garba’s reforms have began to affect the country’s educational development.

Many Nigerians have also been commending UBEC through various social media platforms.

On X, Mazi NnaEmeka posted, “didn’t come in to play politics, she came in to work, and she’s already breaking 20-year barriers that kept millions of children from accessing education.”

HighChiefOkoro also posted, “This is what purposeful leadership looks like. No noise, just results. @AishaMGarba is proving that with the right competence and vision, even the most rigid systems can be reformed for impact.”

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