Sources of expenditure and their distribution Federal government expenditures
Federal Government expenditures on
education are below 10 percent of its overall expenditures. Table 2 presents
these shares, and separately for recurrent and capital expenditures, based on
actual expenditures between 1997 and 2000 and on estimates for 2001 and 2002.
Overall, the shares have varied between 9.9 and 7.6 percent and the trend has
been largely downward. Typically, between 70 and 80 percent of expenditures are
for recurrent activities. However, in 2000, the capital allocation increased to
45 percent of the total, in line with the overall large increase in capital
expenditure in the Federal Government’s budget.
Table 1
Federal Government Expenditures on Education
as Share of Total Federal Expenditure, 1997–2001. (Percent)
|
|
1997
|
1998
|
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
|
Recurrent
|
12.3
|
12.0
|
11.7
|
9.4
|
9.5
|
9.1
|
|
Capital
|
6.1
|
7.5
|
5.0
|
8.5
|
6.0
|
6.0
|
|
Total
|
9.9
|
9.6
|
9.0
|
9.0
|
7.6
|
8.0
|
Source: Federal
Government of Nigeria, Annual Budget (various years). Reported in
Herbert
(2002)
As described above, while each tier of
education has at various times been the concurrent (joint) responsibility of
both Federal and state governments, the former has historically been much more
involved at the post secondary level. Table 2 presents the shares of Federal
Government recurrent and capital expenditures by level of education between
1996 and 2002. Over the period, the share for the (24) Federal universities has
varied between roughly 40 and 50 percent of total Federal expenditures, while
those for the (16) polytechnics and (20) colleges of education have remained
fairly constant (apart from one year) at around 17 percent and 11 percent
respectively. Overall, during the whole period, the tertiary education sub
sector has received between 68 percent and 80 percent of the total Federal
expenditures for education. In five out of the seven years, the allocation to
secondary education has been above that for primary.
Table 2
Federal Government Expenditure Shares by
Level of Education, 1996–2000. (Percent)
|
|
1996
|
1997
|
1998
|
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
|
Tertiary
|
79.9
|
78.9
|
68.4
|
69.0
|
75.8
|
68.1
|
76.9
|
|
Universities
|
52.5
|
44.6
|
39.4
|
39.9
|
49.2
|
39.6
|
51.2
|
|
Polytechnics
|
16.2
|
23.2
|
17.0
|
18.5
|
17.0
|
16.6
|
16.0
|
|
Colleges of Education
|
11.2
|
11.1
|
12.0
|
10.6
|
9.6
|
11.9
|
9.7
|
|
Secondary
|
10.4
|
11.3
|
14.6
|
18.7
|
15.3
|
15.5
|
15.6
|
|
Primary
|
9.7
|
9.8
|
16.9
|
12.2
|
8.9
|
16.4
|
7.5
|
Source:
As in Table 2
The average shares have been 14.5
percent for secondary schooling and 11.5 percent for primary schooling. Federal
government expenditures on secondary schooling are basically for the federal
government colleges (unity schools), usually three of which are established in
each state (80 in total so far) and the 16 federal secondary technical
colleges. Allocations for primary schooling have been more ad hoc resulting
from specific initiatives. In the past three years, most have been for the
construction of three classroom blocks and classroom renovation in each local
government authority.
Allocations to the federal
polytechnics and colleges of education have been much below those requested by
the respective Boards. The data are only available to 1996 but in that year,
the polytechnics received 47 percent of the requested recurrent budget and 55
percent of the capital request (Udeh, 2000). For colleges of education the
allocations were 45 percent and 22 percent of the requests respectively.
The extent to which this represents
‘under-funding’ or bloated requests is not known but it does indicate that the
budgeting process lacks incentives for rational allocations.