Niger Imposes 5% Levy on Agro Produce to Fund Education

•Sets aside N300bn for revitalization of educational infrastructures

Laleye Dipo in Minna

Niger State Government has said it will impose 5% on all agricultural produce produced by the state to fund education a policy that is expected to generate over N200bn.

This is even as the government is to spend N300bn on the revitalization of basic educational infrastructure across the state this year.

Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago who disclosed this in Minna on Tuesday, at the groundbreaking ceremony for the revitalization of basic education infrastructure which has Marafa Basic School as pilot scheme, said government had completed arrangements to expend another N100bn for the remodeling and upgrading of some schools to mega institutions.

Bago said in line with the administration’s drive for quality education another N5bn would be spent to expand and upgrade 25 nomadic Schools and interventions for Quranic and Sangaya Schools while provision of N5b has also been set aside for the education of children with Special Needs in the state in the next five years.

Bago also disclosed that the government will provide 1m computers and tablets for learning across all public schools in the state in order for students to be in tandem with current global practices

The governor who described education as a fundamental Human Right submitted that every child in the state deserved to have education which is why government has declared it “free and compulsory at the basic level”.

Bago assured the people that the new Niger agenda “is determined to provide succour to Nigerlites at all levels” before appreciating the Universal Basic Education Board SUBEC for its collaboration and continued support to basic education.

The Executive Chairman of the Niger State Universal Basic Education Board, Alhaji Muhammad Baba Ibrahim, in an address, disclosed that the Marafa Basic School, when remodeled, will have 128 classrooms out of which 110 will be for teaching, 5 e-libraries, 2 basic science laboratories, 2 basic technology laboratories, 2 entrepreneurship clubs, 2 home economics centres and 2 resource centres for children with special needs.

Baba Ibrahim also disclosed that the school will have 1 resource centre for teachers while 104 schools will be upscaled and standardized.