Niger votes 50% of 2025 budget for education

The Niger State government will spend over 50 per cent of its 2025 budget on education and health.

This was disclosed by Governor Mohammed Bago on Wednesday, during the symbolic distribution of kitchen utensils to boarding schools and classroom furniture at the Educational Resource Centres, Minna.

Bago said N1.8bn was earmarked as a matching grant to the Universal Basic Education Commission for the timely payment of counterpart funds to support educational projects in the state, adding that 534 schools would also be renovated.

The governor, who was represented at the event by the Secretary to the State Government, Abubakar Usman, said, “About half of the 2025 budget will go to the education and health sectors. Also, N1.8bn has been earmarked as a matching grant to the Universal Basic Education Commission.

“The administration is committed to the timely payment of counterpart funds to support educational projects in the state.

“Through our partnership with the World Bank Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment programme, we intend to expand access to education for girl-child and renovate 534 schools across the state.

“Also, given the importance of technical and vocational education, the sum of N1.512bn was earmarked for the complete renovation and equipping of technical schools in Suleja.”

While enumerating the achievements recorded on education by the government, the governor stressed that his priority was to ensure that access to quality education was provided from basic to tertiary levels.

He commended the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education and all critical stakeholders for their support in revamping the education sector in the state.

The Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Hadiza Mohammed, described the distribution of kitchen utensils as a significant step in the collective effort to enhance education in the state.

She said the state had 43 active boarding schools under the government’s direct feeding programme which, she said, included 34 conventional boarding schools and eight integrated Quranic education schools, with a total of 9,382 students.

She noted that the number was expected to rise to 12,000 in the 2024/2025 academic session.

At the event, the government distributed 5,000-litre capacity water storage tanks, frying pans, plastic drums, grinding machines, cooking pots and plastics, trays, buckets, serving spoons, big coolers and turning sticks.

Others were chopping boards, mortar and pestles, torchlight, kitchen knives, perforated cooking spoons, iron basins, students’ plates, measuring jugs, fire stands and students’ food warmers, among others.