A new report by the civic tech organisation BudgIT has revealed that Nigerian states allocated extremely low funding to education and health in 2024, spending an average of just N6,981 per person on education and N3,483 per person on health. These findings come from the 10th edition of the BudgIT State of States Report, which highlights weak budget performance across the federation.
BudgIT, known for using technology to enhance citizen engagement and strengthen public institutions, noted that despite the critical importance of education and healthcare to human capital development, states implemented less than 70 per cent of their approved budgets for both sectors. According to the report, not a single state spent up to N20,000 per capita on education or N10,000 per capita on health, far below standards recommended by global bodies. UNESCO and the World Health Organization advise nations to dedicate 15–20 per cent of their budgets to education and health respectively.
In the education sector, Nigerian states budgeted a combined N2.41tn for 2024 but ended up spending only N1.61tn, translating to an implementation rate of 66.92 per cent. Though several states showed relatively stronger performance, only nine states Edo, Delta, Katsina, Rivers, Yobe, Ekiti, Bayelsa, Bauchi, and Osun achieved more than 80 per cent execution of their education budgets. Remarkably, Edo, Delta, and Katsina went above 100 per cent implementation, although Edo’s total spend was N24.1bn and Delta’s reached N127.73bn. Despite these figures, education spending per capita remained troublingly low nationwide, with just eight states crossing the N10,000 per person mark.
Health spending followed a similar pattern. States allocated N1.32tn to health services but utilised only N816.64bn, representing a 61.9 per cent performance level. Only seven states Yobe, Gombe, Ekiti, Lagos, Edo, Delta, and Bauchi implemented more than 80 per cent of their health budgets. Yobe recorded the highest budget execution at 98.2 per cent, yet its total expenditure of N13.24bn ranked only 24th overall. Per capita spending on health was even lower than education, averaging N3,483, with no state spending up to N10,000 per resident. Only a handful of states, including Lagos, Bayelsa, Edo, Abia, Kwara, Niger, and Delta, surpassed N5,000 per person.
BudgIT warned that even though healthcare funding is partly supported by federal interventions such as the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, states must dedicate more of their growing revenues to essential services. The low funding levels are particularly worrisome given Nigeria’s significant human capital challenges. A recent UNICEF and Federal Government report shows that 10.2 million primary-school-age children and 8.1 million secondary-school-age children are out of school. The report also notes that 105 million Nigerians aged 0–17 represent nearly half of the country’s population an indicator that investing in children is vital for Nigeria’s future development.
Nigeria’s health outcomes also reflect the need for greater investment: for every 1,000 live births, 41 infants die, and for every 100,000 women, 1,047 die during childbirth. Meanwhile, the government has recently expanded compulsory health insurance under the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act 2025, complementing earlier reforms under the National Health Insurance Authority Act to improve access to healthcare.
