By Ogochukwu Isioma
All the federal universities in Nigeria would spend nothing less than N6.5 billion on electricity charges and generator fuelling next year, metrowatchxtra can authoritatively report.
This was contained in the 2023 Appropriation Bill presented to the joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja on Friday October 7, 2022, by President Muhammadu Buhari.
metrowatchxtra reports that the Bill also captured that government will be spending a total of N299.8 billion on salaries and wages of lecturers and other categories of workers in these institutions.
For instance, the University of Lagos (UNILAG) will spend N1.4bn on electricity charges; Amadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, N1.04bn; and University of Ibadan (UI), N60m.
While Nigerian Maritime University will be allocated N80m for plant/generator fuelling; while Bayero University, Kano, will get N89.1m for the same purpose.
For salaries and wages, lecturers and workers in these federal universities, including the National Open University of Nigeria, NOUN, will earn N299,824,662,756.
In the breakdown, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) will get the highest amount of N21,245,020,967; Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, follows with N18,106,769,124.
University of Benin (UNIBEN) will receive N14,708,298,696; University of Lagos (UNILAG), N12,109,993,909; University of Ibadan (UI), N13,698,057,825; and University of Calabar (UNICAL), N16,163,662,566.
Others are University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), N8,470,227,623; University of Port-Harcourt (UNIPORT), N10,693,373,602; Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), N10,468,542,426; and University of Uyo (UNIUYO), N8,845,618,115.
Some of the universities with the lowest wages and salaries include Federal University of Technology Ikot-Abasi, with N912,061,591; David Umahi Federal University of Medical Sciences, N1,207,502,124; and Federal University of Health Sciences, Otukpo, N1,418,218,616, among others.
Meanwhile, experts in the education sector have called on the government and other stakeholders to develop alternate funding plans for public universities as quickly as possible.
The experts noted that there was a need for such alternate funding plans so as to remove the strain on the government and better the situation of things in the nation’s university system.
