The Niger State Ministry of Education says it has paid N433 million for the settlement of the backlog of debt owed to examination conducting organisations by the state.
The organisation include the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) National Examination Council (NECO), and National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB).
Others are the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS) and Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
The state Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Hannatu Salihu, disclosed this during presentation of the 2022 budget performance and screening of the 2023 budget allocation.
The ministry made the presentation to the state House of Assembly Committee on Education.
She said N7.3 billion was approved to the ministry as capital budget for basic and post-basic education sector out of which N2.2 billion was released indicating 39 per cent of allocation.
Salihu explained that out of the N2.5 billion recurrent expenditure approved for 2022, personnel cost was N1.2 billion and overhead was N.3 billion, adding that N1.6 billion and N622.4 million were released respectively.
“This represents a budget performance of 91 and 48 per cent for the personnel and overhead,” she said.
She disclosed that the 2022 budget was constrained by low release of funds, which affected the completion of ongoing projects, adding that allocation to the education sector was far below the 26 per cent UNESCO recommendation.
She, however, said that the ministry recorded achievement in the Whole School Development Approach, capacity building training of Zonal Quantity Assurance Officers and generation of N14.8 million as IGR.
