Education budget axed despite lofty Presidential promise

On July 28, 2021, Buhari promised in a signed document at the summit in London titled “Heads Of State Call To Action On Education Financing Ahead Of The Global Education Summit” 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.

The summit aims to fund public education for children in 90 countries and these countries represent 80% of the out-of-school children in the world. Nigeria ranks very high in the league of these countries as she’s estimated to have 10.5 million out-of-school children. The 2-day summit was Co-hosted by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.

However, on the 7th of October, the president submitted the proposed budget for 2022 to the National assembly, less than three months after making the promise. An infographic by the International Center for Investigative Reporting, ICIR shows that the proposed budget for education in 2022 as regards the national budget percentage is the lowest since Buhari assumed office in 2015. The non-fulfilment of this promise might not come as a surprise for many as stakeholders in the sector think the declaration is a tall order, given the country’s debt profile and other priorities

In the 2022 budget sent to the National Assembly by Buhari which stood at a total of N16.39 trillion, the education sector (Excluding the TETFUND)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. 80billion.

In the 2021 budget which was N13.58 trillion,the education sector (Excluding the TETFUND) got N771.46 billion. Recurrent and capital votes for the year were N615.28 billion and N156.17 billion, respectively.

The figures above show that there is no progressive increase as promised by the Buhari at the summit last year. We rate this Promise Broken.

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