2026 Budget: Six percent FG allocation to education far below UNESCO, World Bank benchmarks

Contrary to the UNESCO and the World Bank recommendations for developing countries to allocate at least 26 percent or between 20 and 30 percent of their national budgets to education, respectively, Nigeria’s budgetary allocation to the sector is still far below the two global benchmarks.

Last week, President Bola Tinubu presented the national budget proposal to the joint session of the National Assembly to pass into law.

In the proposal, government allocated N3.52 trillion of its total budget proposals of N58.18 trillion, including N15.52 trillion to service debts, for 2026 fiscal year to education.

The amount represents just 6.1 per cent of the total budget proposed for the year, which is the same with that of last year’s budget for the sector.

While presenting the budget, Tinubu highlighted the importance of education to the accomplishment of his administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which is to make life more meaningful for every Nigerian.

He also mentioned three other sectors which he termed to be the topmost priorities of his administration, namely: Defence and Security, Infrastructure and Health.

On this, Tinubu earmarked N5.41 trillion (representing 9.3 percent) to Defence and Security, while allocating N3.56 trillion (representing 6.12 percent) to Infrastructure and N2.48 trillion (representing 4.3 percent) to Health.

Comparatively, last year’s budget for Defence and Security, which was also the largest, was N4.91 trillion, while that of Infrastructure was N4.06 trillion against N3.56 trillion for this year and Heath got N2. 8 trillion, which was higher than this year’s proposal

Similarly, in 2024, Education got N2.18 trillion (representing 9%), while Defence and Security, Infrastructure and Heath got N3.25 trillion (representing 12%), N1.32 trillion (representing 5%) and N1.33 trillion (also representing 5%) of the total budget for the year, respectively.

Tinubu, however, in Abuja, emphasised the importance of giving top priorities to these four key sectors, saying substantial investment in them will consequently result in true economic prosperity for Nigeria.

According to him, priorities are given to the four sectors because they are interlinked, noting that without security, investment will not thrive and without educated and healthy citizens, productivity will not rise while without infrastructure, jobs and enterprises will not scale. “

So, this budget, Tinubu stated, is designed to provide a single, coherent programme of national renewal.

While declaring that the allocations truly reflect his administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda towards giving a better life for Nigerians, he gave the theme of this year’s budget as “Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity.”

For the two previous years, their themes were Budgets of Renewed Hope Agenda.

According to Tinubu, this year’s budget reflects his administration’s determination to lock in macroeconomic stability, deepen competitiveness, and ensure that growth translates into decent jobs, rising incomes, and a better quality of life for every Nigerian.

But should this budget proposal pass into law by the National Assembly without adding substantial amount to allocation for education, Nigeria’s education may not experience any significant improvement in the coming year.

READ ALSO: Tinubu’s 2026 budget will renew Nigerians’ sufferings — PDP