BUHARI ASSURES STUDENTS OF FREE TERTIARY EDUCATION , FREE MEALS IN PRY SCH. AND FULL EMPLOYMENT TO GRADUATES- 2016 Budget

While presenting the 2016 budget to the National Assembly, President Buhari made his intentions for the Nigerian youths and students known by promising that his administration would train and deploy NCE holders and the underemployed/jobless graduates as teachers in in primary schools. And that higher education students will also enjoy free education.


He said, "... we are conscious of the current rate of unemployment and underemployment. This is a challenge we are determined to meet; and this budget is the platform for putting more Nigerians to work. I can assure you that this administration will have a job creation focus in every aspect of the execution of this budget. Nigeria’s job creation drive will be private sector led. We will encourage this by a reduction in tax rates for smaller businesses as well as subsidized funding for priority sectors such as agriculture and solid minerals."

In the speech, President Buhari said as a way of tackling the high rate of unemployment in the country, the government  as an "emergency measure, to address the chronic shortage of teachers in public schools across the country, we also will partner with State and Local Governments to recruit, train and deploy 500,000 unemployed graduates and NCE holders. These graduate teachers will be deployed to primary schools, thereby, enhancing the provision of basic education especially in our rural areas."

" We also intend to partner with State and Local Governments to provide financial training and loans to market women, traders and artisans, through their cooperative societies. We believe that this segment of our society is not only critical to our plan for growing small businesses, but it is also an important platform to create jobs and provide opportunities for entrepreneurs."

The president also promised free education to students of tertiary institutions as well as providing for the poor and free meals for primary school pupils, " ...we are working with various evelopment partners to design an implementable and transparent conditional cash transfer program for the poorest and most vulnerable. This program will be implemented in phases. Already, the compilation of registers of the poorest persons is ongoing. In the coming weeks, we will present the full programme, which will include our home-grown public primary school feeding and free education for science, technology and education students in our tertiary institutions. Indeed, this will mark a historic milestone for us as a nation."