Action Aid commends President Muhammadu Buhari towards more Money for Education.

ActionAid Nigeria has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his commitment to increase education spending by 50 per cent over the next two years and up to 100 per cent by 2025, with the objective to reach the global benchmark of 20 per cent of public allocation and expenditure to education.

In a press release by the Country Director Ene Obi, the body said the commitment made at the Global Education Summit in London which was co-hosted by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta is a great step for the sector.

She said since Nigeria is a signatory to many international instruments on the delivery of quality education, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) they expect to see a directive to all relevant government Ministries, Departments and Agencies to prioritize and commence the process of incremental budgeting to actualize the commitment.

The NGO noted that the commitment responds to the call for Governments to take actions to increase the SHARE of funds allocated to and spent on free, quality, inclusive public education.

This commitment for them is coming at the right time when Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, is home to the highest number of out-of-school children in the world (estimated at around 10.5 million) and called on all arms of government to collectively push forward this commitment and ensure that necessary steps are taken to actualize the commitment.

Obi also tasked the Government to ensure partnership to enable greater scrutiny of future allocations by publicly publishing education budget and expenditure, target projects and programmes that are aimed at addressing the out-of-school phenomenon especially for girls and other marginalized children, improve learning outcomes and increase the nation’s stock of human capital and quality provision of gender responsive public service facilities in all schools.

Seun Fakorede