No! Lagos did not increase capital spending on education by 60% | EduCeleb
Abdussalam Amoo
9th November 2019
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State on Friday presented a N1.168 trillion budget for year 2020.
In his speech, he claimed that the education sector would be getting a 60% increase in capital spending compared with the 2019 budget.
But EduCeleb.com can report that the figure was inaccurate.
The government plans to expend N723.75 billion of the total spending on capital expenditure and N48 billion, representing 6.6% of that goes into education and technology.
Mr Sanwo-Olu had promised on focusing more spending on education and health along with infrastructure in the state.
In  the process, he made reference to increasing the N30.05 billion earmarked on capital expenditure in 2019 to N48 billion in 2020.
In his words, “Education will see a significantly increased capital budgetary allocation of N48 billion, an increase of 60 per cent over the 2019 provision of N30 billion. We must improve the standard and relevance of our education outcomes to our industries.”
When calculated, the N17.95 billion difference does not amount to a 60% increase as claimed.
Rather, the increase is 37.4%, barely above half of the touted figure.
It is not immediately clear how much of the total N444.81 billion for recurrent expenditure would go into education. The governor did not state that in his presentation.
When contacted, officials of the state government in its finance and education ministries could not provide more information about it just as the government was yet to make the budget details public a day after the presentation.