President Muhammadu Buhari has pledged to increase the budget for the education sector by 50 percent over the next two years as part of a joint agreement among heads of state at the ongoing Global Education Summit in London.
This was disclosed in a statement by his Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina titled, ‘President Buhari Commits to Increase Education Budget By 50% In The Next Two Years’.
In a document titled, Heads Of State Call To Action On Education Financing Ahead Of The Global Education Summit,” signed as a form of commitment at the on-going Summit in London, United Kingdom, the President stated, “I join my brother, His Excellency, Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya, to affirm our commitment to improve learning outcomes in our respective countries by ensuring equitable access to quality and inclusive education for all our citizens, with particular emphasis on the girl child.
“We fully endorse the call for more efficient use of resources and to significantly increase investment in education by strengthening institutions, promoting greater adoption of technology, building the capacities of our teachers and mobilizing additional financial resources through legal frameworks and deliberate intervention on a sustainable basis.
“In this regard, we commit to progressively increase our annual domestic education expenditure by 50 per cent over the next two years and up to 100 percent by 2025 beyond the 20 percent global benchmark.”
The summit which is being co-hosted by the Prime Minister of UK Boris Johnson and the President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta seeks to give opportunity for leaders to make five-year pledges to support GPE’s work to help transform education systems in up to 90 countries and territories.
From 2011 to 2021, the budget on education had increased from over N300 billion to over N700 billion, yet, its allocation is still very low on the total budget.
Breakdown of Education Budget
In 2011, the sector was allocated N393.8 billion — 9.3 per cent of the total budget while it got N468.3 billion — 9.86 per cent of the 2012 budget.
In 2013, N499.7 billion representing 10.1 per cent of the total was allocated; N494.7 billion – 10.5 per cent of the 2014 budget and N484.2billion – 10.7 per cent of the 2015 budget.
The education sector in 2016 got N369. 6 billion — 7.9 per cent of the total budget, N550. 5 billion was allotted in 2017, representing 7.4 per cent of the total budget; N605.8 billion in 2018 -7.04 per cent ; N620.5 billion – 7.05 per cent of the 2019 budget and N671. 07 billion (6.7 per cent) in the 2020 appropriation bill.