The federal and state governments have allocated less than eight percent of their N43.5 trillion combined budgets for education in the last three years, Daily Trust investigations have shown.


The two tiers of government had a cumulative expenditure of N43.5 trillion between 2016 and 2018, but only N3.34 trillion was earmarked for education.


This amount will mainly be spent on salaries, general administration and overheads. Votes were also made for new recruitments and teachers’ verification among others.


Daily Trust investigations have shown that in 2018, the federal and state governments budgeted a total of N17.5 trillion but only N1.32 trillion (7.5 percent) was voted for education.


Out of the N13.5 trillion total expenditure of the two tiers of government in 2017, only N993 billion (7.3 percent) was meant for education.


In 2016, the federal and state governments voted N1.03 trillion (8.44 percent) for education out of their combined votes of N12.5 trillion.


Impact of poor funding


These lean votes for education will translate to low GDP growth that will hinder the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Auwal Musa Rafsanjani of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) said.


This also means that Nigeria hadn’t yet factored education as a key to development and economic empowerment, he said.


The poor funding of the sector will likely affect pupils’ enrolment into primary schools. Minister of education Adamu Adamu recently said there are 8.6 million out-of-school children in the country.


A 2015 UIS-UNESCO report on “Financing education in Nigeria: Opportunities for action,” said despite many years of effort, the education system in Nigeria remains weak, especially in the north, although the poor quality of statistical data hampers a clear analysis of the numbers.


Recurrent capital expenditure imbalances in budgetary allocations aggravate the challenges and stifle the provision of education infrastructure, the study said.


It said Nigeria has recorded some progress in school enrolment recently, but despite this progress, however, the country has the highest population of out of school children in the world.


“While officially mandated to oversee primary education, state governments (SGs) fail to allocate resources for this purpose, relying instead on local governments’ (LGs) funds,” the report said.


As education takes backstage


Analysis of the 2018 budget documents of the 29 states across the country revealed that N742.2 billion was earmarked for education.


There are no education figures for Kebbi, Adamawa, Enugu, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Ondo, and Osun.


The federal government, on the other hand, is planning to spend only N605.8 billion out of its N8.61 trillion budgets on education this year.


In 2017, the federal and 33 state governments budgeted N993 billion (7.3 percent of the budget) on education.


This figure was slightly lower than the N1.03 trillion (8.44 percent) the two tiers of government spent on education in 2016.


Of its N7.3 trillion budgets in 2017, the federal government voted N448.01 billion on the sector, compared to the N367.73 billion it spent in 2016.


Twenty-seven states budgeted N544.6 billion on the sector in 2017, a slight reduction from the N653.53 billion they spent on the sector in 2016.


This figure is far below the reported 26 percent benchmark set by UNESCO on education for developing countries.


The northern states (minus Kebbi and Adamawa) are planning to spend N365.7 billion on education this year.


This is slightly higher than the N301.2 billion the states budgeted for education in 2017.


In 2016, the region voted N361.13 billion for education.


This year, the southern states (minus Ekiti, Ondo, Osun, Enugu, and Ebonyi) budgeted N376.5 billion for education.


This figure is higher than the N243.4 billion education budgets of 12 southern states in 2017.


In 2016, the southern states voted N292. 4 billion for education.


Geopolitical breakdown


The South-west zone’s spending on education for the year (minus Ondo and Ekiti states) is N211.6 billion. This is about N60 billion higher than the N152.5 billion it spent in 2017. The zone spent N178.41 billion in 2016.


The North-west zone (minus Kebbi) budgeted N184.9 billion for education in 2018.


The figure is N40 billion higher than the N139 billion it spent in 2017 and N174.28 billion it spent in 2016.


The Northeast allocated N118.1 billion for education this year, about N100 billion higher than the N81 billion it spent in 2017. The zone spent N85 billion on the sector in 2016.


The North-central zone’s budget for education this year is N62.3 billion, about N20 billion lower than the N82 billion it spent in 2017. It spent N101.71 billion on the sector in 2016.


The South-south region allocated N136.5 billion for education in 2018. This figure is slightly higher than the N100.99 billion it spent in 2017.


The South-east (minus Enugu and Ebonyi) budgeted N28.4 billion for education. The states of Anambra, Enugu, and Ebonyi voted N16.4 billion for education in 2017.


States with fat budgets


Lagos remains the biggest spender on education for two consecutive years. It is planning to spend N126.3 billion this year, having spent N92.4 billion last year.


Other top spenders include Ogun which is planning to spend N79.2 billion, having spent N47 billion in 2017.


Sokoto which spent N38 billion in 2017 has budgeted N57.5 billion for the sector this year.


Rivers is planning to spend N50 billion on education this year having spent only N30 billion last year.


Katsina budget also rose from N16.5 billion last year to N42.4 billion in 2018.


Kaduna’s education vote dropped from N45 billion in 2017 to N33 billion in 2018.


Borno’s education allocation dropped from N33 billion in 2017 to N27.2 billion this year.


There was an increase in Kano’s vote from N17.5 billion in 2017 to N21 billion in 2018.


Bauchi’s budget rose from N27 billion in 2017 to N31 .5 billion in 2018.


Bayelsa’s education vote rose from N13.5 billion in 2017 to N22 billion this year, while that of Delta rose from N12 billion to N18.7 billion.


Nasarawa voted N24.3 billion for the sector this year, against last year’s N11.8 billion; and Yobe earmarked N23 billion this year, up from 2017’s N17.7 billion.


Gombe voted (N31.4bn), Imo (N13.5bn), Zamfara (N13.3bn), Akwa Ibom (N10.5bn), Kwara (N12.6bn), and Plateau (N11bn).


States with lean budgets


States with less expenditure for education are: Niger (N4.1bn), Kogi (N4.2bn), Taraba (N5bn), Abia (N5.4bn), Benue (N6.5bn), Oyo (N6.1bn), Edo (N6.3bn), and Anambra (N9.5bn).

http://www.akelicious.com/2018/02/fg-states-voted-n75-of-n43tr-budgets-on.html