Education, Health Sectors Get High Priority in Niger State’s 2025 Budget, Says Gov Bago

Laleye Dipo in Minna

Both the education and health sectors are to take the lion share of the 2025 Niger State budget, Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago disclosed in Minna on Wednesday.

Bago said this at the distribution of cooking utensils to boarding schools in the state and explained that the decision is to ensure access of the people to quality education from primary to tertiary levels and standard health facilities.

The governor who disclosed that N1.8bn had been released as marching grant for the Universal Basic Education Commission NSUBEC projects this year reiterated the administration’s determination to ensure access to quality education is provided from basic to tertiary level.

“Through our partnership with the World Bank Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) programme, we intend to expand access to education for girl-child and renovate 534 schools across the state,” Bago said.

The governor said that: “Given the importance of technical and vocational education, N1.512 billion was earmarked for the complete renovation and equipping of technical schools in Suleja”.

He also commended the Ministry for Basic and Secondary Education “as well as all critical stakeholders for their support in revamping the education sector in the state” and urged them not to relent in their efforts.

The Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Dr. Hadiza Asabe Mohammed, said lack of essential kitchen utensils in boarding schools had affected the wellbeing of students pointing out that the distribution of the kitchen utensils” is a significant step in the collective efforts to enhance education in the state”.

Mohammed disclosed that the state presently has 43 active boarding schools under the government’s Direct Feeding Programme which includes 34 conventional boarding schools and 8 integrated Quranic Education Schools, with 9,382 students, pointing out that the number is expected to rise to 12,000 in the 2024/2025 academic session.