Scholarship Aids Initiative (SAI) has urged the Nigerian government to increase its budget for education to address the challenges in the sector.

This was made known by the group’s African Regional President, Dr Oluwatosin Adebayo at a stakeholders’ forum and presentation of awards held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

The federal government, in its 2021 appropriation bill, budgeted N545.10 billion for education. That is 11 percent of the total amount proposed for the year.

‘The government is not investing enough money in education but rather investing a huge amount of money in other sectors, and by the time this is changed a lot of young people will realise a lot of funding is needed for things to be done very well’, he said.

Also speaking, a lecturer at the University of Ibadan, Odedokun Adekunle, said, ‘The United Nations set 26 percent as standard and we are giving five-six percent to education, we should not expect much from that allocation.

‘We want to plead with the federal government to please increase the allocation because if we do not train these young men and women now, they will become thorns in our flesh later on’.

Source: Scholarship Aid Initiative

Photo source: Daily Trust