.ASUU says Nigeria’s education budget lowest in W’Africa
The Federal Government will, today, flag off the construction of state-of-the-art hostels in 36 higher institutions across the country, starting with a 1,600-bed hostel at Akwa Ibom State University.
This comes as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) decried the neglect of the country’s education sector by successive governments, which ranked the lowest in education budgets across West Africa.
At a workshop, yesterday, in Abuja on ‘Emerging areas of student needs in beneficiary institutions’, Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Sonny Echono, revealed that the initiative was a Public Private Partnership (PPP), adding that N1 billion was allocated to 12 institutions to provide counterpart fund.
“Under the 2024 intervention cycle, based on the President’s approval, 12 institutions (six universities, three polytechnics and three Colleges of Education) were identified and selected to benefit from the N1 billion allocation, which will be utilised as equity contribution in partnership with private developers to construct hostels.
“In line with our enabling law, two institutions were selected for each of the six geopolitical zones in the country. I am pleased to inform you that the Africa Plus Partners, in partnership with Akwa Ibom State University, will launch the construction of a 1,600-capacity student hostel through the support of TETFund (today),” he said.
Echono, however, explained that not all the institutions would benefit from the PPP arrangement, as 24 others would be on a direct contract.
Government, The Guardian learnt, earmarked N24 billion for the project, while the private sector would contribute N72 billion.
In his remarks, the National President of ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, called for an upward review of the Education Tax to 10 per cent. This, he said, would increase TETFund funding from N600 billion yearly to N3 trillion.
He noted: “We have surveyed West African countries. The least budgetary allocation to education by any country in West Africa is 15 per cent. The highest is 32 per cent. We are in a country where we give 4.5 to seven per cent, out of which less than 70 per cent is released. But the Obafemi Awolowo government was allocating over 30 per cent to education.”
He singled out Enugu, Abia and Oyo states for earmarking more than 20 per cent of their budgets to the sector.
