The Federal Government has budgeted N470 billion for university revitalization and salary increases for lecturers in 2023.
The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, revealed at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday that the money was committed exclusively to education for salary increases for university lecturers and university revitalization.
The amount of N300 billion is designated for university regeneration, while N170 billion is designated for lecturer salary raises.
According to her, the draught 2023 budget was developed in the context of global challenges such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the COVID-19 outbreak, and she said that generating income has been a significant obstacle to the country’s national progress.
She claimed that 2,05 trillion naira is allocated to education and 1,58 trillion naira is allocated to the health sector.
In addition, she noted that 2.74 trillion naira is allotted to defence and security, 998.9 billion naira to infrastructure, and 756 billion naira to social development and poverty reduction.
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) members recently completed their eight-month strike over, among other things, the upward review of lecturers’ welfare.