The federal government has allocated N1.32 trillion for infrastructure projects across the country and around N2.18 trillion for education in the 2024 budget proposal.
The figure represents 5% and 7.9% for infrastructure and education respectively of the total N27.5 trillion budget proposal.
This is contained in a document from the Budget Office seen by TheWitness on the breakdown and highlight of the 2024 budget proposal and allocations to critical sectors of the economy.
According to the document, the N1.32 trillion allocated for infrastructure includes projects in works and housing, transport, aviation and water resources.
Nigeria has a huge infrastructure deficit estimated to require around $3 trillion worth of investment to bridge. The federal government in its Reviewed National Integrated Masterplan stated that the country needs investment to the tune of $150 billion annually to meet its infrastructure needs.
The Tinubu administration has hinted at the need to finance the massive infrastructure projects across energy, transport, etc through private capital.
During his maiden press conference, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun disclosed the administration’s plan to finance infrastructure through private capital.
Also, President Tinubu during his budget presentation before the National Assembly mooted this decision and plans to use his current trip to Dubai for COP 28 to garner private capital for massive infrastructure projects.
Other sectoral allocation includes N3.25 trillion for security and defence, N1.33 trillion for health and 2.18 trillion for education.
In total, the federal government allocated 12%, 5% and 7.9% for the security, health and education sector respectively.
The allocation for education falls short of the UNESCO recommendation for developing countries like Nigeria to allocate between 15% and 20% of government expenditure to education.
President Tinubu promised to improve Nigeria’s education sector by putting millions of children back in school and reforming the tertiary education system by creating a sustainable funding model. Already, the President has signed the Student Loan Act into law and stated that the program will commence in January 2024 as N5.5 billion was allocated to it in the 2023 supplementary budget.
A breakdown of the education budget reveals that the Tertiary Education Fund (TETFUND) would get N700 billion, UBE N251.47 billion while the Ministry of Education gets N1.23 trillion inclusive of recurrent and capital expenditure.
For the health sector, the N1.33 trillion proposed allocation comprises N137.21 billion as counterpart funding for donor-supported funds and Gavi Immunisation.
Also, N125.74 billion was allocated as a transfer for basic healthcare provision funds.
