Abuja and FCT
Boarding schools in Abuja: fourteen options, from the unity colleges to the British-curriculum campuses
Fourteen secondary schools in and around Abuja take boarders. Three are federal unity colleges with nationally set fees and admission by the National Common Entrance Examination. Several are full boarding only, including Loyola Jesuit. The rest run day and boarding side by side, which is the arrangement most Abuja families end up with when the school is across the city from home.
This page lists them with the facts that decide a boarding choice: whether boarding is compulsory, which side of the city the campus sits on, what the school teaches, and what it costs with the source for every figure. Where a school does not publish its fee we say so rather than guess.
14 schools listed, 11 with a fee figure and its source. Updated 21 September 2026.
How this list is ordered
Full boarding schools and the federal unity colleges come first, because boarding is the whole proposition there. Day-and-boarding schools follow, ordered by how often they appear across five independent 2025 and 2026 published lists of Abuja schools and by fee transparency. Position is not a judgement of teaching quality.
- •Boarding confirmed as compulsory, optional, or on a separate campus
- •Named on independent published lists of Abuja secondary schools
- •Fee transparency: a figure on the school's own site beats a third-party estimate, which beats nothing
- •Ownership: federal unity college, mission, or private
- •Distance from the city centre, because boarding usually means the campus is out of town
Fees. Boarding invoices have two parts: tuition and the boarding charge, and most published figures only show the first. A figure marked 'school schedule' was read on the school's own site; 'estimate' comes from the named third-party page linked beside it; 'not published' means no source we would cite prints one. Ask every boarding school for the boarding line as a separate item, plus feeding, bedding, medicals and the provisions list, before you compare.
The list
| # | School | Area | Type | Fees | Why it is here |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nigerian · Co-educational · Boarding School website | Gidan Mangoro, Karu | Private mission (Jesuit), full boarding | Not published, ask the school The college does not publish a fee schedule; third-party figures vary so widely that we do not print one. Ask at admission. | Named on four of the five independent lists we checked. Opened in 1996 as a full boarding school run by the Society of Jesus with over 600 students from JSS1 to SSS3, and admission is by entrance examination. |
| 2 | Nigerian · Girls · Boarding | Bwari | Federal unity college, boarding | ₦100,000 per termestimate Unity college fees are set nationally by the Federal Ministry of Education; the 2024 revision took the term fee to about ₦100,000. Admission is through the National Common Entrance Examination. | One of the three federal unity colleges in the FCT, and the girls' boarding option. Entry is by the National Common Entrance Examination, not by ability to pay. |
| 3 | Nigerian · Co-educational · Boarding | Kwali | Federal unity college, boarding | ₦100,000 per termestimate Nationally set unity college fee; confirm the current figure with the college. | The co-educational unity college for the FCT, about 70 km from the city centre on the Lokoja road. Same national admission route and fee scale as every other unity college. |
| 4 | Federal Government Boys' College, Apo Nigerian · Boys · Boarding | Apo | Federal unity college, boarding | ₦100,000 per termestimate Nationally set unity college fee; confirm the current figure with the college. | Named on two of the five lists. The boys' unity college inside the city, which makes it the easiest of the three for Abuja families to visit. |
| 5 | British (IGCSE, A Level) · Co-educational · Day and boarding | Gwarinpa | Private, British curriculum, day and boarding | ₦900,000 to ₦2,400,000 per yearestimate Source: doris.school (2025) Range quoted for primary; secondary and A Level are higher. Confirm with the school. | Named on three of the five lists. Runs IGCSE and A Level and is one of the Abuja schools families use as a route to UK and North American universities. |
| 6 | Nigerian Tulip International Colleges (NTIC) Nigerian with Cambridge options · Co-educational · Day and boarding | Wuse 2 (day) and Ushafa (boarding) | Private, day and boarding | Not published, ask the school Fees are given at admission. Recent third-party reports for the boarding campus are far above the day fee; confirm which campus you are quoted for. | Named on three of the five lists, and the Abuja school most often cited for science olympiad results. Two campuses: day in Wuse 2, boarding at Ushafa. |
| 7 | Nigerian with Cambridge options · Co-educational · Boarding | Lugbe | Private, boarding | ₦1,000,000 per termestimate Source: SchoolsCompass (2025) SchoolsCompass lists tuition above ₦1,000,000 per term and a first-year joining total of about ₦5.4m including one-off charges. | The main private boarding option on the airport road side of the city, with a large purpose-built campus. |
| 8 | British · Co-educational · Day and boarding | Jabi | Private, British curriculum, day and boarding | ₦551,250 to ₦750,000 per termestimate Source: SchoolsCompass (2025) Tuition ₦551,250 per term on SchoolsCompass, plus PTA levy, uniform, books and a ₦20,000 application fee. | Named on two of the five lists. British curriculum at a lower fee than the Maitama international schools, with boarding available; a common shortlist entry for Jabi, Utako and Life Camp families. |
| 9 | Nigerian · Co-educational · Boarding | Goshen City, Abuja-Keffi Road | Private mission (Living Faith), boarding | ₦200,000 to ₦285,900 per termestimate Source: Nigeria Private Schools (2025) JSS ₦200,000 to ₦261,500 and SS ₦270,000 to ₦285,900 per term, plus a small PTA levy. One of the few boarding schools on this list under ₦300,000 a term. | Named on two of the five lists. A Living Faith (Winners) mission boarding school about 26 km out on the Keffi road; the lowest published boarding fee among the private schools here. |
| 10 | Nigerian and British · Co-educational · Day and boarding School website | Jahi | Private, day and boarding | ₦500,000 to ₦800,000 per termestimate Source: Nigeria Private Schools (2025) The school's own site lists a ₦50,000 commitment fee at admission. | Named on one of the five lists. A mid-fee Jahi option that runs both the Nigerian and British streams. |
| 11 | Aduvie International School Nigerian and British · Co-educational · Day and boarding | Jahi | Private, day and boarding | ₦1,350,000 to ₦1,800,000 per yearestimate Two sources disagree: ₦1.35m to ₦1.8m a year on one, ₦300,000 to ₦700,000 a term on the other. Confirm before budgeting. | Named on two of the five lists. Nursery to secondary on one Jahi campus, with a one-off capital fee in the first year. |
| 12 | Funtaj International School Nigerian and British · Co-educational · Day and boarding | Gudu | Private, day and boarding | Not published, ask the school Source: Best Nigerian Schools (2024) Listed among Abuja schools with annual fees under ₦1.5m in 2024. | Named on two of the five lists. Long-established on the Apo and Gudu side with both day and boarding places. |
| 13 | Nigerian, science focus · Co-educational · Boarding | Kuje | Private, boarding | Not published, ask the school Published third-party figures range from about ₦750,000 to ₦2m a term and do not agree, so we print none. | Named on two of the five lists, usually for its science and mathematics emphasis. A boarding campus at Kuje, south of the city. |
| 14 | Pacesetters' Schools Nigerian · Co-educational · Day and boarding | Wuse 2 | Private, day and boarding | ₦50,000 to ₦400,000 per termestimate Source: Nigeria Private Schools (2025) The listed range spans nursery to secondary; the secondary fee sits at the top of it. | Named on one of the five lists. One of the older private groups in the city with both day and boarding streams. |
Run a school on this list, or know a figure is out of date? Claim the profile and correct it; corrections with a fee schedule attached go live the same week.
By area
Inside the city
FGBC Apo, NTIC Wuse 2 (day campus), Whiteplains in Jabi, Glisten and Aduvie in Jahi, Lead British in Gwarinpa and Pacesetters in Wuse 2. Weekend exeats are a short drive.
Airport road and Lugbe
Premiere Academy at Lugbe and Funtaj at Gudu. Faith Academy is further out at Goshen City on the Keffi road.
Out of town
Loyola Jesuit at Gidan Mangoro on the Karu side, NTIC's boarding campus at Ushafa, FGGC Bwari, Capital Science at Kuje, and FGC Kwali about 70 km down the Lokoja road.
Full boarding or day and boarding
Loyola Jesuit, the three unity colleges, Premiere Academy, Faith Academy and Capital Science are boarding only: every student lives in. Lead British, NTIC (Ushafa), Whiteplains, Glisten, Aduvie, Funtaj and Pacesetters take both, so a family can start on day places and move to boarding in senior secondary, or the other way round. Ask whether the two groups are taught together and whether boarders get supervised prep in the evening; that is where the boarding fee goes.
The unity college route
FGGC Bwari (girls), FGBC Apo (boys) and FGC Kwali (co-educational) admit through the National Common Entrance Examination in Primary 6, with places by merit and state quota. Fees are set by the Federal Ministry of Education for all unity colleges and are a fraction of any private boarding school here. The trade is large classes and, for Kwali and Bwari, a campus well outside the city.
What a boarding quote should include
Tuition, boarding, feeding, bedding and hostel kit, medical cover, laundry, weekend and exeat arrangements, and the provisions list the school expects you to buy each term. Ask for last year's full invoice for a boarder in the class your child is entering. A school that hands it over in writing is the school to compare the others against.
Questions parents ask about schools in Abuja
Which boarding schools in Abuja are boarding only?
Loyola Jesuit College, FGGC Bwari, FGC Kwali, FGBC Apo, Premiere Academy, Faith Academy and Capital Science Academy. The others on this page offer boarding alongside day places.
What is the cheapest boarding school in Abuja?
The three federal unity colleges, with a nationally set fee of about ₦100,000 a term after the 2024 revision. Among private schools, Faith Academy at Goshen City publishes the lowest figure on this page, under ₦300,000 a term including boarding.
Are there British-curriculum boarding schools in Abuja?
Lead British International School in Gwarinpa and Whiteplains British School in Jabi both board and teach the British curriculum; Glisten and Aduvie in Jahi run British and Nigerian streams with boarding.
How far are the boarding campuses from the city?
FGBC Apo, Whiteplains, Glisten, Aduvie, Lead British and Pacesetters are inside the city. Premiere and Funtaj are on the airport road side. Loyola Jesuit, NTIC Ushafa, FGGC Bwari, Capital Science and FGC Kwali are out of town, Kwali the furthest at about 70 km.
Do the fees on this page include boarding?
Only where the note says so. Most published figures are tuition only; ask each school for the boarding charge as a separate line.
Why are there no exam results on this page?
No Abuja school publishes results in a comparable form and we do not print figures we cannot source.