Jigawa faults NGF report claiming zero education spending in Q1 2026

The Jigawa government says it spent N29.1 billion on education in the Q1 2026, contrary to a report by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) which claimed zero allocation within the period.

The NGF had in its State’s Budget Implementation Report for Q1 2026, issued in May by the body’s economic intelligence unit, indicated that Jigawa was the only state that did not spend any amount on education during the period under review.

In the sector spending growth section contained on Page 14 of the report, zero spending was recorded for the state under both the health and education categories.

Kano led with N59 billion, followed by Lagos with N39.9 billion, while Imo (N3.5 billion) and Jigawa (zero) occupied the bottom positions.

However, in a statement on Saturday, Hamisu Gumel, chief press secretary to the governor of Jigawa, said the claim was inconsistent with the official financial records of the state.

Citing the state’s 2026 budget performance report for the first quarter, Gumel said the state had an original 2026 budget of N231.7 billion for education, out of which N29.1 billion was spent in the first quarter, representing 12.6 percent performance.

He said the expenditure is recorded under “Function 709 – Education” of the budget performance report, which he said had been available on the state ministry of budget’s website since April.

“It is therefore not correct to state, without cogent evidence, that Jigawa State recorded zero expenditure on education during the period,” he said.

Giving a breakdown of the first-quarter education expenditure, Gumel said N83.7 billion was budgeted for pre-primary and primary education, out of which N10.1 billion was spent, representing 12.1 percent performance.

“Under Secondary Education, the original budget was N39,477,425,000.00, while actual Q1 expenditure stood at N3,639,861,420.60, representing 9.2% performance,” he said.

“Under Post-Secondary Non-Tertiary Education, the original budget was N830,000,000.00, with no expenditure recorded in Q1.

“Under Tertiary Education, the original budget was N59,326,983,000.00, while actual Q1 expenditure stood at N4,936,760,317.06, representing 8.3% performance.”

He said the budget performance report also contained expenditures under other education functions, including “education not definable by level, subsidiary services to education, and research and development in education”, among others.

Gumel added that the state government welcomes scrutiny of its expenditure and performance from any quarter.

“We do not claim that every education budget line recorded expenditure during the first quarter; the official report clearly shows that some individual categories recorded no expenditure while others recorded varying levels of implementation,” he said.

“Yet, this is fundamentally different from the assertion that Jigawa State spent zero on education.”