Women Affairs Minister seeks upward review of N134.2bn 2026 budget

•As Senate frowns at poor releases

By Haruna Salami and Musa Baba Adamu

The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajia Imaan Sulaiman – Ibrahim, has requested for upward review of the N134.2billion earmarked for the Ministry in the 2026 fiscal year .
This is as the Senate through its committee on Women Affairs , frowned at the abysmally poor cash releases given to the Ministry’s capital and overhead components of the 2025 budget .
Call for upward review of 2026 budget proposal for the Women Affairs Ministry , was made by the Minister on Monday during budget defence session with the Senate Committee on Women Affairs.
The upward review according to her , will help the Ministry to implement programmes geared at confronting multifaceted challenges confronting women in the country .
“ In line with the plan and need for more domestic allocations in the 2026 fiscal year, upward review of budget estimates for the Ministry Women Affairs and and Social Development , should be done “, she said .
However in her response , the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ireti Kingibe ( FCT) , said the request was a welcome one but that poor releases of funds is a problem that must be solved first by the executive .
“ We are not against upward review of what is earmarked for your Ministry in 2026 but the problem of abysmal. Releases of fund as reflected in the presentations just made by you on 2025 budget appropriation and releases for your ministry ,is a serious concern to us . That problem must be addressed first “, she said .
Earlier in her presentations on performance of the 2025 budget and projections made for 2026, the Minister said out of the N89.8billion appropriated for capital expenditure , only N394million was released in December which was not even utilized .
“ The same thing happened in the release made on fund appropriated for our overhead in 2025 as only N471million was released out of N2.8billion appropriated “, she said
She added that for 2026, a total of N134 2billion was earmarked for the ministry out which , N2.1billion is for personnel cost , N131.2billion for capital and N810.9million for overhead cost.