Abiodun Signs Education, Skills Trust Fund Bill Into Law

Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, has signed the State Education and Skills Trust Fund Bill into law, establishing a framework for sustainable funding and improved management of education and skills development across the state.

The governor signed the legislation on Friday at the Governor’s Office in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

Speaking after the ceremony, the Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Oludaisi Elemide, said the new law would strengthen the delivery of quality education and improve outcomes across the state.

Elemide said the legislation followed extensive consultations with members of the public and other stakeholders, adding that it was designed to make education more meaningful, qualitative and constructive.

“We are just trying to make education more meaningful, more qualitative and more constructive. It will be more encompassing; that is what the bill is all about,” he said.

The Speaker expressed optimism that effective implementation of the law would further strengthen the education sector and consolidate Ogun’s position as a major education destination in Nigeria.

He, however, called for increased private-sector participation, noting that the financial resources required to effectively fund education could not be provided by government alone.

“The private people too need to contribute. After all, they are the ones that will inherit these people after being educated,” Elemide said.

Also speaking, the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu, said the Trust Fund would support both formal and informal education, with particular emphasis on skills acquisition and vocational development.

According to him, the fund would provide an additional source of financing beyond the state’s regular budgetary allocation and support areas such as school infrastructure, bursaries, teacher support and maintenance.

“In other words, 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,” Arigbabu said.

Arigbabu explained that Ogun had previously operated under an executive bill signed by the governor three years ago, but the passage of the legislation by the House of Assembly would now provide stronger legal backing for the Trust Fund.

He added that the law would also support the integration of informal education into the state’s education system through the re-engineering of the traditional apprenticeship model.

The commissioner disclosed that more than 9,000 youths had already received training in various vocations through the state’s skills-development initiatives.

He said the Education and Skills Trust Fund would provide additional support for expanding informal education, vocational training and other skills-development programmes across Ogun State.