As part of its fiscal measures to address lingering crisis in the nation’s tertiary institutions, the Federal Government on Wednesday disclosed that it provided N470 billion special fund for university revitalisation and upward adjustment of lecturers’ salaries in the 2023 Appropriation Bill now before the National Assembly.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, who made this disclosure at a briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, explained that the sum was part of the Education Sector allocation in the 2023 budget estimates.
According to her, the sum of N300 billion is for university revitalization while N170 billion is for upward adjustments of the university lecturers’ salaries.
The minister explained that the draft Appropriation Bill’s provisions were made against background of international and domestic micro and macroeconomic challenges such as the Nigeria’s dwindling oil output, the Russia-Ukraine war and the lingering COVID-19 pandemic impacts, amongst others.
She specifically spoke on government’s revenue generation challenges, which had continued to necessitate the borrowing option to finance the yearly budgets.
Earlier in her remarks, Ahmed spoke elaborately on fiscal constraints of the federal government and explained that the achievements being recorded in key areas of infrastructure, revenue generation, poverty alleviation and many others was due to the fiscal prudence of the present administration
