The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has hailed the Federal Government and Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Chief Idris Olorunimbe, for introducing zero-rated access to online educational platforms for students.

The NANS President, Babatunde Akinteye, gave the commendation during the launch of the initiative in Abuja at the weekend.

Akinteye said the intervention addressed one of the biggest barriers to modern learning. He stated: ‘’In today’s world, education is no longer confined to classrooms. Knowledge lives online — in e-libraries, research databases, digital courses, coding platforms, and virtual classrooms.

“Yet, the cost of data remains one of the biggest barriers preventing millions of Nigerian students from accessing these resources.

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“By proposing zero-rated data access to educational platforms, the NCC is addressing the real bottleneck of modern learning; connectivity.”

The NANS president described the policy as “the smartest, most strategic and potentially, most impactful intervention in the education architecture of Nigeria in our recent history’’.

“Rather than distributing physical materials alone or relying solely on traditional infrastructure, it directly subsidises access to knowledge itself. It recognises that in the digital age, data is the new textbook,” he added.

Akinteye recalled other federal interventions for students under the Tinubu administration, including uninterrupted academic calendars, the NELFUND student loan scheme, and free tuition with monthly stipends of N20,000 and N22,500 at Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) centers.

“While still expressing our profound gratitude to the Federal government for the interventions above, the NCC has brought about the zero-rated access to educational platforms and digital contents.

“In effect, this would allow students across all education level to be able to learn and carry out research online on approved websites and e-libraries without necessarily having to buy data,” he said.

He also thanked Olorunimbe and the NCC board for first proposing the idea during a meeting with the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON).

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According to NANS, the scheme will take effect from October 1, 2026.

Under the provisions, each student from secondary to tertiary level will get 100MB free data per day.

About 5 million students in public senior secondary schools and public tertiary institutions are expected to benefit.

The rollout will be done through collaboration between the _lNCC, Federal Ministry of Education, and ALTON.

The free data will work only on approved educational websites, digital libraries, and learning platforms.

It cannot be used for social media, general browsing, or video streaming on unapproved sites.

Also, using the educational data will not deduct from students’ normal data balance.

“In the 21st century, the best way to subsidize education is not only by building more classrooms — but by unlocking unlimited access to knowledge.

“The NCC’s ‘Free Data for Learning’ initiative reflects visionary thinking in that direction and deserves commendation,” Akinteye stressed. (The Nation)