A total sum of N1.76 trillion has been allocated to the Health and Educational sectors in the 2021 budget, indicating a 56.3% increase from the N1.13 trillion allocated in the 2020 budget. The breakdown of the allocation in the 2021 budget includes the total sums of N1.13 trillion allocated to the Education sector and N632.7 billion allocated to the Health sector.
This is according to a verified tweet by the official handle of the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
Key spending on Health & Education Sectors in the #FGNBudget2021.
It is important to note that States/Local Governments [subnationals] also spend. To know what Nigeria spends in total on these sectors, one needs to aggregate all 36 states and FCT spends,not just the FGN Budget. pic.twitter.com/42lN7bvuE9
— Federal Ministry of Finance (@FinMinNigeria) October 19, 2020
The total sum of N1.13 trillion allocated to the Education sector in 2021 is 64.5% higher than the N686.8 billion allocated to the sector in the 2020 budget. Similarly, the N632.7 billion allocation to the Health sector in 2021 is up by 43.5% compared to the N441.0 billion for the sector in 2020.
Backstory
Nairametrics had earlier reported key highlights of the 2021 budget tagged “Budget of Economic Recovery and Resilience” which indicated an increase of 27% from its 2020 figures.
Education
- Of the N1.13 trillion allocated to education in the 2021 budget, N742.52 billion is meant for the Recurrent and Capital Expenditure of the Federal Ministry of Education and its agencies.
- N70.05 billion is budgeted for the provision of Universal Basic Education (UBEC).
- N318 billion is budgeted for the provisions of infrastructure in tertiary institutions through TETFUND.
Health
- Of the N632.7 billion budgeted for the Health sector, the Federal Ministry of Health got the lion share for Recurrent and Capital Expenditure at N546.98 billion.
- Gavi/immunization funds were allocated N45.19 billion
- Transfer to Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF) at N35.03 billion and N5.5 billion counterpart funding for donor-supported programmes, which includes Global Fund
Why this matters
The importance of the Education and Health sectors to overall national development cannot be overemphasized. In lieu of this, many analysts and policymakers have continuously advocated for increased funding in both sectors.
The ravaging effect of the pandemic exposed a lot of vulnerabilities and funding gaps in the aforementioned sectors; therefore, the increase in the sectoral allocations will boost both key sectors. However, there is still room for development as the UNESCO 26% threshold for funding in the educational sector is yet to be met.