Universities must prepare needs-based budgets

Most Nigerian top-level managers, when they need to go for training, end up going to Harvard University or the London School of Economics, but training could be done in Nigeria – if a needs-based budget is adopted by universities, according to Professor Olufemi Bamiro, writes Modupe George for the Nigerian Tribune.

Olufemi Bamiro, former vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan and pro-chancellor of Tai Solarin University of Education, said that first and foremost, funding has to improve, because education is not being well-funded. In Ghana, 30% of the budget is spent on education, unlike in Nigeria where we are spending 6%. UNESCO has prescribed 26% for developing countries; it’s very important that we give a sizeable percentage of our budget to education. Most countries are putting a lot of resources into training of teachers and students; but in Nigeria, we are not funding education to make the kind of products we are looking for.

From 2005 to the present, the federal government, and probably in some instance states too, have been giving public universities envelope funding. They will just make sure that what they give you is enough to pay salaries. At no point have they asked you how much do you need to run your system? Rather, the attitude is, take it if you like or leave it. Also, on the part of universities too, we have stopped budgeting. I have always said that universities have to sit down and come up with needs-based budgets. What are the needs? Proper funding of education in Nigeria is urgent.
Full report on the Nigerian Tribune site