The Federal Government has urged state governments to align their budgets with development plans and sector priorities to improve basic education and primary healthcare delivery, amid concerns that about 70 per cent of Nigerian primary-school-age children cannot read and understand a simple text.
The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Deborah Odoh, made the call on Monday in Abuja at a technical capacity-building workshop on Disbursement-Linked Indicator 2 of the Human Capital Opportunities for Prosperity and Equity Governance Programme (HOPE-GOV).
Odoh said the 2027 budget cycle offered states an opportunity to strengthen the link between development plans, sector policies, operational workplans and budgets, stressing that public spending must reflect government priorities and produce measurable results.
She explained that the workshop was designed to help states assess their plans, budgets, available resources and implementation gaps. She added that the exercise would strengthen institutions’ capacity to cost priorities, apply the National Chart of Accounts and reconcile planned expenditure with available resources and budget ceilings.
The permanent secretary emphasised that the Federal Government and technical experts were not expected to prepare state budgets but to strengthen the capacity of state institutions to manage the process effectively. She urged officials across budget, planning, education and healthcare agencies to work together and leave the workshop with clear action plans, responsibilities and implementation timelines.
The National Coordinator of HOPE-GOV, Dr Assad Hassan, said improving education and primary healthcare required more than increased spending, noting that better planning, budgeting, execution and accountability were necessary to translate public resources into services and tangible outcomes.
Earlier, the Director of Teacher Professional Development at the Universal Basic Education Commission, Maryam Sani Dangaji, disclosed that more than N65 billion in counterpart funding remained unaccessed as of August 2026, while about N267 billion in released intervention funds was yet to be utilised.
Dangaji said the learning crisis underscored the need for improved accountability and more effective use of education funds. She added that UBEC had revamped its Basic Education Action Plan, introduced a digital system to track plans and funding, revised its intervention fund guidelines and developed a 10-year strategic roadmap covering 2026 to 2035.
Meanwhile, the National Project Coordinator of HOPE-EDU, Dr Layi Olatunwura, said estimates of Nigeria’s out-of-school children ranged from 12 million to 17 million, depending on the data source, with at least six million girls among them. He said the programme aimed to reach 29 million children over four years, provide non-formal education to another 1.5 million children and support 500,000 public school teachers across 65,000 schools.
The HOPE-PHC National Coordinator, Muntaqa Umar-Sadiq, also called for stronger coordination and better use of data to address governance challenges affecting healthcare delivery. He urged states to ensure that health priorities were reflected in their budgets and that allocated funds were released and spent appropriately.
The Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Muyi Aina, represented by HOPE-PHC focal person Onesirosan Omawumi Daibo, disclosed that N77.7 billion had been disbursed through the Basic Health Care Provision Fund to 8,309 primary healthcare facilities across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The HOPE programme, supported by the World Bank, aims to strengthen governance and improve basic education and primary healthcare delivery. The workshop is expected to help states align development plans, sector workplans and budgets ahead of the 2027 budget cycle.
