FG to increase education budget by 25%
Prof. Tahir Mamman, the Minister of Education, has announced President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to increase the education budget by 25%.
This announcement was made during the commencement of the 2021 and 2022 Nigeria Annual Education Conference (NAEC) in Abuja on Monday.
The conference, themed “Implementation of Education 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Nigeria,” aims to explore collaborative strategies to achieve the education goals set for 2030.
Foreign support for Nigeria’s education initiatives was also emphasized at the event. James O’Donoghue, the Education Adviser from the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) in the UK, pledged the UK’s commitment to assist Nigeria in achieving its 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda.
O’Donoghue stressed the importance of increased education funding in Nigeria and the prudent utilization of allocated funds to enhance overall educational quality.
The United Nations (UN) has recommended that the Nigerian government raise its budget allocation for the education sector from the current seven percent to 20 percent.
This increase is essential to fulfill Sustainable Development Goal 4, which focuses on achieving universal, inclusive, and equitable basic education for all school-age children by 2030.
Historically, Nigeria’s allocation to education has fallen below international benchmarks for developing nations.
In the 2023 budget, the education sector received N1.79 trillion, representing 8.2 percent of the total appropriation bill. This allocation comprised N103.29 billion for the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and N248.27 billion for infrastructure projects in tertiary institutions through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).
An additional N470 billion was earmarked for tertiary education revitalization and salary enhancements.
Despite this increased allocation, the defense and security sectors still received the largest budgetary allocations, totaling N2.98 trillion or 13. percent of the budget..
