More than ₦267 billion in released basic education intervention funds remained unspent as of August 2026, while over ₦65 billion in counterpart funding is yet to be accessed by states, the Federal Government has disclosed.

The revelation has raised fresh concerns over the management of resources meant to improve learning outcomes across the country.

Vanguard reported that the disclosure comes amid an alarming education crisis. According to the Universal Basic Education Commission, about 70 per cent of Nigerian children of primary school age cannot read and understand a simple text.

The figures have drawn renewed attention to the gap between government spending commitments and the delivery of essential services. Nigeria continues to struggle with poor learning outcomes, inadequate educational infrastructure and gaps in access to quality primary healthcare.

Against this backdrop, the Federal Government, working with the World Bank and other stakeholders, has moved to strengthen budget planning and execution at the state level. It insists that public resources must be tied directly to clearly defined priorities and measurable results.

The effort is being pursued under the Human Capital Opportunities for Prosperity and Equity–Governance Programme, HOPE-GOV. It takes the form of a technical capacity-building workshop on Disbursement-Linked Indicator 2, DLI 2, which focuses on improving state budget planning and execution for basic education and primary healthcare.

The workshop held in Abuja on Monday. Speaking there, the Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Aisha Garba, was represented by the commission’s Coordinator for HOPE-GOV and Director of Teacher Professional Development, Maryam Sani Dangaji.

Garba said the huge sums of unutilised funds underscored the need for a fundamental shift in how states plan, budget and spend money allocated to basic education.

She maintained that increasing allocations alone would not resolve the country’s education challenges. According to her, governments must also strengthen accountability, improve expenditure efficiency and ensure that available resources translate into better learning outcomes.

“Spending more will not achieve this by itself; we must spend better,” she said.

She stressed that every naira spent on classrooms, instructional materials and teacher training must produce tangible improvements in children’s ability to read, write and count.

According to her, the challenge is not merely to provide more funding but to ensure that resources reach the schools and communities where they are most needed.

Under the HOPE-GOV framework, states are expected to prepare consolidated education plans, align their budgets with those plans and ensure that approved expenditure is implemented within established performance limits.

The approach is designed to strengthen the link between government priorities, budgetary allocations and actual service delivery. It also seeks to encourage states to deploy scarce public resources more efficiently.

The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Dr Deborah Odoh, said the quality of government spending depends largely on the strength of the systems through which public resources are planned, allocated and used.

She said budgeting must not be treated as an isolated administrative exercise. In her view, it is the financial expression of government priorities and development plans.

Odoh, who declared the workshop open, said the preparation of the 2027 fiscal-year budgets offers states an opportunity to address weaknesses in their planning and expenditure processes.

According to her, state development plans, sector policies, annual operational plans and consolidated workplans must be properly linked to annual budgets. This, she said, would ensure that allocations reflect identified needs and realistic implementation costs.

For primary healthcare, she said, annual operational plans should provide the basis for identifying and prioritising expenditure. For basic education, she said, the annual consolidated work plans should establish a clear connection between sector priorities and budget allocations.

She explained that the workshop was designed as a practical exercise. Participating states would review their actual plans, workplans, budgets and resource information rather than simply receive theoretical presentations.

The sessions will examine how sector priorities are costed and reflected in budgets. They will also look at how expenditure is classified under the National Chart of Accounts, and how proposed activities can be reconciled with available resources and budget ceilings.

Odoh emphasised that the objective was not for the Federal Government or technical experts to prepare state budgets. Rather, it is to strengthen the capacity of state institutions to manage their own planning and budgeting processes effectively.

She urged participating states to identify existing weaknesses, agree on corrective measures and establish clear responsibilities and implementation timelines.

The permanent secretary added that technical support would continue after the workshop. This, she said, would help states address outstanding issues and sustain the alignment of their plans and budgets.

The National Coordinator of the HOPE-GOV Programme, Dr Assad Hassan, said the initiative was intended to move states beyond preparing development plans. The goal, he said, is to ensure those plans translate into funded priorities and measurable outcomes.

He said the workshop represented an important step towards strengthening the institutional systems required to improve the delivery of basic education and primary healthcare.

“We are here to move from plans to priorities, from priorities to budgets, and from budgets to results,” Hassan said.

According to him, meaningful improvements in education and healthcare cannot be achieved simply by increasing government expenditure without addressing weaknesses in planning, budgeting, implementation and accountability.

He said the workshop would help states identify gaps in their existing systems and improve the alignment of annual operational plans and consolidated workplans with their 2027 budgets. It would also strengthen the use of programme-based budgeting.

Other areas of focus include project prioritisation, costing, mapping and geo-tagging, as well as reconciling sector plans with available fiscal resources.

Hassan said the ultimate objective was to ensure that every participating state leaves the exercise with a clearer understanding of the reforms required and practical steps for implementing them.

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat also stressed the need for state governments to ensure that their budgetary commitments to education and primary healthcare translate into services citizens can access.

Dr Chinekwu Oreh, a senior health specialist who represented the secretariat’s Executive Director of Programmes and Partnerships, said the success of government policies in the two sectors depends on realistic plans, credible budgets, and the timely release and use of approved funds.

She noted that primary healthcare facilities and classrooms are where government commitments to human capital development ultimately become visible to citizens.

Under DLI 2, she explained, each state is expected to ensure that approved budgets for basic education and primary healthcare are based on their consolidated work plans. Expenditure must also remain within established budget performance limits.

She said the ongoing 2027 budget preparation process offers states a chance to address weaknesses identified during the programme’s Year Zero verification.

Oreh added that the Nigeria Governors’ Forum would continue to support states through technical assistance and peer learning. The aim is to improve budget credibility, strengthen implementation and promote timely publication of transparent fiscal information.

She urged state officials to use the workshop to develop practical solutions that can be implemented immediately, rather than treat it as another routine capacity-building exercise.

While education financing remains a major concern, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, outlined ongoing efforts to strengthen primary healthcare delivery. These cover infrastructure, financing, workforce development and accountability.

The agency’s Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dr Muyi Aina, was represented by the HOPE-PHC focal person, Onesirosan Omawumi Daibo. She said 3,504 primary healthcare centres had been revitalised, with work continuing at another 930 facilities.

The intervention forms part of the Federal Government’s target of revitalising 17,600 primary healthcare facilities over four years.

Aina also disclosed that ₦77.7 billion had been disbursed through the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, BHCPF, to 8,309 primary healthcare facilities across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory between 2023 and the first quarter of 2026.

According to him, the agency is expanding coverage towards a target of 13,521 facilities under the fund.

To improve financial accountability, the agency has deployed its BHCPF Financial Management System application in 5,071 facilities across 21 states.

In addition, 774 performance and financial management officers have been deployed across local government areas to monitor performance and financial management at facility level.

On workforce development, Aina said 78,054 frontline health workers had been trained, against a four-year target of 120,000.

He added that the agency had incentivised the recruitment of 19,758 skilled birth attendants across 22 states and 3,876 community-based health workers across 10 states.

Funding has also been secured to support the recruitment of an additional 3,629 skilled birth attendants and 11,200 community-based health workers in 26 states and the FCT, he said.

Aina stressed that sustainable improvements in primary healthcare require adequate financing, costed workplans, effective implementation and accountability for results.

He urged state governments to ensure that their 2027 budgets provide for functional primary healthcare facilities, adequately trained personnel, essential medicines, basic equipment and improved access to services for mothers, children and other vulnerable populations.

To address weaknesses in basic education planning and financing, UBEC said it was implementing reforms aimed at improving the identification of needs, allocation of resources and monitoring of expenditure.

The measures include a revamped Basic Education Action Plan, BEAP, a digital Basic Education Action Plan Management System, BEAPMS, revised UBE Intervention Fund Guidelines and a 10-year strategic roadmap covering 2026 to 2035.

The BEAP is designed to give states a consolidated framework for identifying and prioritising their basic education needs.

The BEAPMS will support digital submission of plans, tracking of fund utilisation and publication of information on resources accessed by states from UBEC.

The revised intervention fund guidelines are meant to enable states to direct resources towards areas of greatest need, rather than concentrating only on the construction of new classrooms.

UBEC also called on state officials to strengthen coordination among ministries of education, finance, budget and planning, state universal basic education boards and local government education authorities.

It urged states to monitor budget execution quarterly, publish relevant documents promptly and ensure that their budgets reflect approved sector plans.

The commission said it was prepared to provide technical assistance through its desk officers, BEAPMS team and planning experts.

The workshop brings together state officials responsible for budget and planning, primary healthcare, basic education and programme coordination. Representatives of the Federal Ministry of Finance, NPHCDA, UBEC, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, the World Bank and other technical partners are also taking part.

The World Bank-supported HOPE-GOV programme operates alongside related interventions focused on primary healthcare and basic education. Its broader objective is to strengthen public resource management and improve human capital outcomes.