The Federal government has provided N470billion Special Fund in the 2023 budget for university revitalisation and upward adjustment of lecturers’ salaries.
The Minister of Finance and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this at a briefing in Abuja on Wednesday.
She explained that the sum was specially provided in the allocation to education for upward adjustment of salaries for university lecturers and revitalization of universities.
The sum of N300billion is for university revitalisation and N170billion for upward adjustments of the university lecturers’ salaries.
Mrs. Ahmed said the draft 2023 budget has been prepared on the background of international challenges such as the Russia-Ukraine war and COVID-19 pandemic, adding that revenue generation has been a major challenge to national development in the country.
On the allocations for critical sectors, she said the sum of N2.05 trillion is allocated to education and N1.58 trillion for health.
She added that N2.74 trillion is allocated to defense and security, infrastructure got N998.9 billion while social development and poverty reduction has N756 billion.
Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) recently suspended their eight-month strike over the upward review of lecturers’ welfare, amongst others.