PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has reneged on his promise to raise Federal Government’s budget for education by 50 per cent, effective from 2022.
The education sector will get lower funds (next year) than what it received in 2021 budget, despite the president promise.
In July, Buhari had promised at the Global Education Summit in London to beat the global benchmark of 20 per cent and raise his government’s budget for education to 50 per cent in 2022 and 2023, and to 100 per cent by 2025.
“We commit to progressively increase our annual domestic education expenditure by 50 per cent over the next two years and up to 100 per cent by 2025 beyond the 20 per cent global benchmark,” the News Agency of Nigeria had reported the president as saying at the meeting.
Less than three months after making the promise, the president submitted the proposed budget for 2022 to the National Assembly on October 7.
Regarding the national budget percentage, the proposed budget for education (in 2022) is the lowest since Buhari assumed office in 2015.
The budget shows that the government will spend more of the education budget on salaries and running of offices, much more than it will spend on infrastructures.
Of the proposed budget of N16.39 trillion, the sector gets N705.27 billion. The recurrent budget, comprising funds for salaries, training of employees and running of offices, will come to N593,47 billion and funds for infrastructural development in the sector, known as capital budget, as proposed, will take N111. 80 billion.
