The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has described the 2025 budgetary allocation to education as inadequate and below the expected 15 percent to 20 percent internationally advised benchmark.
Chronicle NG reports that President Bola Tinubu presented a N47.90 trillion budget before the 10th National Assembly.
Speaking on the allocation for education in the budget, the Chairman of ASUU, Ibadan chapter, Prof. Ayo Akinwole, in a statement on Wednesday, mentioned that the allocation negates what is obtainable in other climes.
“This would effectively disrupt the revenue stream of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), an agency set up as a product of the ingenuity and struggles of ASUU, that has been the major source of funding for infrastructure development in many public tertiary institutions over the last decade,” he said
“Since its establishment in 2011, TETFund has monitored the disbursement of education tax to public tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
“However, with this new bill, only 50 per cent of the monies accruing to the levy would go to TETFund in 2025 and 2026. TETFund’s share will be upped to 66 per cent in 2027, 2028, and 2029. Then, the agency would cease to get any revenue from 2030. From 2030, the development levy will be solely meant to fund the federal government’s student loan scheme.
“What this means is that the agency that funds infrastructural development in Nigerian tertiary institutions is under the threat of extinction by 2030. This misbegotten policy will have huge and adverse implications for the university system in Nigeria.
“This is, no doubt, an attempt to destroy the major source of infrastructural funding for already struggling public tertiary institutions. It is also an attempt to commodify university education in Nigeria.
“Recently, the president presented the 2025 proposed budget of N47.90 trillion before the 10th National Assembly, out of which N3.52 trillion was earmarked for the education sector.
“This is roughly 7% of the total budget, which falls far below the benchmark of 15%-20% educational budget for underdeveloped countries like Nigeria, specified by both UNESCO and the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), which has been advocated by our Union,” Akinwole added.
Eaarlier, Akinwole described 2025 as a year of persistant struggle between the union and the federal government, if the union’s demands are not met.
“Fellow Nigerians, given the usual adamant posture of the Federal Government to satisfactorily address the pending issues concerning the education sector in general and the university system in particular, we expect that the year 2025 may, if care is not taken, be a year of another challenge and struggle,” he stated.
