To boost school feeding programmes, the Federal Government has allocated the sum of N60 billion to the programme in the 2025 budget to feed primary school pupils with nutritious meals.
The feeding programme is a new project away from the old feeding programme of school pupils, which would now be handled by the Federal Ministry of Education under the Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP), after it was returned to the ministry from the Presidency.
In the 2025 budget, the Federal Ministry of Education was allotted over N348 billion out of the total budget allocation of over N2.517 trillion to the sector.
Although the ministry’s budget is among the highest, it is yet to meet the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and World Bank’s 20 to 30 per cent benchmark of the nations’ budget recommended for the critical sector.
Still under the ERGP, the ministry also allocated N420 million for the induction of 3,500 newly recruited teachers on acculturation into the school system and practice.
Another new project captured in the budget to be undertaken by the Federal Ministry of Education is the Smart/Digital School Education programme, which a total of N415 million was allocated.
This is in addition to N300 million earmarked for the provision of 300 numbers of 3 in 1 desktop computers; while another N100 million was set aside for the provision of 50 Corei7 laptop computers.
Besides, another N85 million of the sectoral allocation would be dedicated to providing 100 printers and N80 million for 40 numbers of 3 in1 desktop computers and printers.
Further breakdown of the ministry’s budget for new projects indicated that a total of N50 billion had been allocated to support Outof-School Children (OSC) project;
N1 billion was dedicated for provision of learning materials and resources for basic and secondary schools across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT); as well as provision of modern learning material for the 118 Federal Unity Colleges, also known as Federal Government Colleges.
In addition, the ministry also budgeted N5 billion for the development and up-skilling of teachers capacity on the new curriculum and modern methodologies of teaching across the 118 Federal Unity Colleges in the country
