Transcript Slide 1

Understanding the National
Financing Issues:
NIGERIA
Professor Ignatius UVAH, PhD (Cantab)
Deputy Executive Secretary,
National Universities Commission,
Abuja, Nigeria
Summary of Presentation
• Sources, System and Trends of funding
for Nigerian universities;
• Data on academic staff and staff retention
in the Nigerian university system; and
• Strategies for retention of academic staff
in Nigerian universities.
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Sources of University Funding 1
• Two major sources of funding for Nigerian
universities are:
– The Proprietor (proprietor funding); and
– Others (Non-proprietor funding).
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Sources of University Funding 2
• The Proprietor:
– Is the:
• Federal Government - 27 federal universities;
• State Governments - 33 state universities; and
• Private corporate organizations - 34 private
universities in Nigeria;
– Provides core funding for universities.
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Sources of University Funding 3
• Sources of non-proprietor funding, aka
Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) are:
– Student fees for:
• Tuition (state and private universities only);
• Utility and other services;
– Endowments; Consultancies;
– Interest on bank deposits; Investment income
(capital market, etc.);
– Rent on facilities; and Special grants &
Donations (in cash or kind); etc.
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Sources of University Funding 4
• There are no legislative limits on IGR or
attraction of capital by institutions.
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Funding System: Federal Universities 1
• Legal framework for funding system for
federal universities:
– Constitutionally, the National Assembly is
empowered to make financial appropriation to
all sectors including education;
– The National Universities Commission is
empowered by Federal Law (LFN 2004, CAP
N81, Sections 4(1)f and 8) to receive block
grants from the Federal Government and to
disburse these to Federal universities.
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Funding System: Federal Universities 2
• The Current Funding System:
– The National Assembly makes appropriation
to individual universities upon
recommendation of the President;
– The President's recommendation is based on
the outcome of a budget process (3-year
medium-term strategy) involving such
stakeholders as the universities, NUC, FME,
FMF and the National Planning Commission.
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Funding System: Federal Universities 3
• The other funding system – Block Grants:
– FG made block grants, differentiated into
capital and recurrent grants, to universities;
– NUC divided the recurrent grants into
Overhead and Personnel costs at 40:60;
– NUC distributed recurrent grants to
universities on the basis of FTE, historical
funding & other criteria.;
– NUC distributed capital grants on the basis of
generation of the universities.
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Funding System: Federal Universities 4
NUC Funding & Fund Utilization Criteria:
• Personnel costs to overheads – 60:40.
• Internally generated revenue - 10% min.
• Expenditure:
– Academic to non-academic 60:40;
– Central administration - 25% max.;
– Library 10%; Research costs 5% - min.; and
– Capacity building 1% of total recurrent – min.
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Funding Trends: Federal Universities 1
Trends
AMOUNT RECEIVED (N)
YEAR
Recurrent
Capital
1998
7,295,447,523.50
2,502,945,000.00
1999
10,362,430,271.98
1,469,500,000.00
2000
28,206,218,865.91
1,936,785,632.00
2001
28,419,719,502.84
4,226,691,359.00
2002
30,351,483,193.00
2003
34,203,050,936.33
2004
41,492,948,787.01
11,973,338,699.00
2005
49,453,098,168.72
8,822,869,440.00
2006
75,400,267,475.00
6,976,416,815.00
2007
76,603,850,516.00
8,981,237,934.00
Funding Trends: Federal Universities 2
Trends
90
80
Amount Received (Billion Naira)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
Recurrent
2003
Capital
2004
2005
2006
2007
Funding Challenges: Federal
Universities
• Funding Challenges:
– Based on projected earnings, Government
provides a budget cap (envelope) to all
sectors including education. This influences
funding for the federal universities;
– Federal universities are not allowed to charge
tuition fees;
– Costs are high – poor national infrastructure &
facilities for power and water supply;
– Institutions complain of inadequate funding.
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Funding System for State Universities
Sources:
• Statutory State Government allocation to
their universities;
• In some States, local governments
contribute 5% of their FG allocation;
• Student fees for tuition and other
services;
• Other IGR.
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Funding System for Private Universities
Sources:
• Proprietor – initial capital and recurrent
requirement;
• Student fees – subsequent recurrent
costs and development;
• Other IGR.
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Staff Development and Retention 1
• Total number of academic staff in the
Nigerian university system as at May
2007 was 30,452:
• Male – 25,133
• Female – 5,319
• Professors – 5,062
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Staff Development and Retention 2
• An NUC study on retention of academics
covering 16,402 staff in 30 universities during the
five-year period, 2001/2002 – 2005/2006,
showed that:
– 5.13% of the staff left the universities;
• 1.01% left to work abroad;
• 4.12% left to work in other sectors in Nigeria;
– Staff that had previously left the university system but
returned during the study period were:
• 12.4% of those lost during same period; but
• 0.62% of all academics in the system; and
– Net loss to the system was equivalent of 4.44% of
total academic staff on the ground.
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Enhancing Staff Retention
• Suggested strategies for staff retention:
 Putting in place an internationally competitive
reward system;
 Improving work environment for teaching,
research and service;
 Basing university budgets on unit cost; and
 Allowing federal universities to share unmet
costs with users of their services – charge
tuition fees.
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FINITO
Thanks for your attention
and
God Bless
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