Abuja – The Federal Government has proposed to spend about N206.50bn on poverty alleviation-related projects in the 2026 fiscal year, representing less than one per cent of the total N58.47tn budget submitted to the National Assembly.
An analysis of project-level data contained in the 2026 Appropriation Bill shows that all items explicitly tagged to poverty alleviation across ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), including the Service Wide Vote, amount to N206.5bn. This figure represents approximately 0.35 per cent of the proposed total expenditure and about 0.89 per cent of the N23.21tn capital budget.
The bulk of the allocation is concentrated under the Service Wide Vote, where two major recurrent provisions tied to the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy (NPRGS) dominate. These include N100bn for the NPRGS under the Federal Government’s commitment, including National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) upscaling, and another N100bn as recurrent allocation for the NPRGS. Together, the two items account for over 96 per cent of the entire poverty alleviation envelope.
Excluding the Service Wide Vote, poverty-related projects across all MDAs total just N6.50bn, highlighting the limited scale of direct interventions spread across government agencies.
Among MDAs, allocations are fragmented and largely focused on food distribution, empowerment tools and skills acquisition. The Border Communities Development Agency has N63m for two poverty alleviation and women empowerment projects in Zamfara North Senatorial District, while the Federal Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs has N9.1m for monitoring and evaluation of poverty programmes.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security allocated N140m to projects including the supply of agricultural grains to parts of Kwara State and the construction of boreholes alongside skills-acquisition starter packs across the six geopolitical zones.
The National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation, Ilorin, received N245m for empowerment items and capacity building for women and youths in Lagos and Oyo states. Nigeria Stored Products Research Institute, Ilorin, has N507.5m largely dedicated to grain distribution in Edo State and the North Central region.
One of the largest MDA-based interventions is N2.87bn allocated to the Federal Co-operative College, Ibadan, for the provision of tricycles and motorcycles for poverty alleviation across the six geopolitical zones. This single project accounts for about 44 per cent of all MDA-based poverty spending. The Centre for Management Development follows with N840m for supplying empowerment items to small and medium-scale enterprises.
Other notable allocations include N700m to the Board for Technology Business Incubator Centre, Abuja, for technology-driven empowerment in Zamfara West Senatorial District; N364m to the Federal Co-operative College, Oji River; and N140m to the Federal College of Horticulture, Dadin Kowa, Gombe.
Smaller allocations were recorded across water resources, science and technology, women affairs, humanitarian services, and space research agencies, many of which focus on studies, symposiums, administrative coordination or limited empowerment schemes.
Despite the modest overall poverty allocation, the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation recorded a sharp increase in its total budget from N7.10bn in 2025 to N23.56bn in 2026, representing a 232 per cent rise. The increase is driven largely by capital expenditure, which rose to N21.18bn, making up about 90 per cent of the ministry’s budget.
However, several capital items under the ministry were not directly linked to poverty alleviation, including spending on office furniture, equipment, retreats, international engagements, accounting systems, and classroom construction projects.
Meanwhile, concerns persist over the effectiveness of social safety-net spending. A World Bank report titled “The State of Social Safety Nets in Nigeria” revealed that only 44 per cent of benefits from government-funded safety-net schemes reach poor Nigerians, describing the system as inefficient. The bank noted that Nigeria spends just 0.14 per cent of its GDP on social protection, far below the global average of 1.5 per cent.
Similarly, PwC’s Nigeria Economic Outlook 2026 projected that the country’s poverty rate could rise to 62 per cent by 2026, with about 141 million Nigerians expected to live below the poverty line. The report cited weak real income growth and persistently high inflation as key drivers.
Both PwC and the World Bank warned that without targeted job creation, productivity growth and effective social protection programmes, poverty reduction in Nigeria would remain a significant challenge, with potential negative implications for consumption, productivity and economic stability.
