Budget: Kwara prioritises education, Kogi leads in health

Budget implementation report (BIR) performance analysis of selected sectors in five North-Central states reveals varying priorities. Kwara State topped in education with a 95.05 percent performance, Kogi State had the best in health at 93.18 percent, while Nasarawa ranked highest in agriculture with 53.32 percent success.

Kwara State spent N16.01 billion of its N16.84 billion pro rata budget in the first two quarters of 2022 to record the best performance of 95.05 per cent in education.

Spending N7.73 billion of the N8.29 billion of the budget (in the first two quarters) for health, Kogi State’s 93.18 percent performance topped other states in the North-Central.

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Nasarawa State spent N1.31 billion of its first two quarters’ budget of N2.45 billion for agriculture, with the state having the best performance at 53.32 percent.

The state’s budget for these sectors varied. Benue State budgeted N20.27 billion for education, N14.31 billion for health, and N5.52 billion for agriculture for the first three quarters.

Also, Niger State had a first three quarters budget for education at N19.96 billion, N16.37 for health, and N4.1 billion for agriculture.

With BIR for the first two quarters, Kogi State had N16.54 billion for education, N8.29 billion for health, and N3.58 billion for Agriculture. In Kwara state, it was N16.84 billion for education, N8.37 billion for health, and N3.42 billion for agriculture.

Nasarawa State’s first two quarters’ pro rata budgets for education was N15.97 billion, N5.95 billion was for health, and N2.45 billion for agriculture.

Health sector

Niger State earmarked the biggest budget in the region’s health. However, Kogi State recorded the best budget performance in the sector.

In Niger State, N16.37 billion was budgeted for the health sector for the first three quarters of 2022. By the end of the period, N7.11 billion had been spent in the sector, representing a 43.45 percent performance. 

Kogi State budgeted N8.29 billion but spent N7.73 billion on health. The state did not only have the best performance at 93.18 percent, it also spent the highest amount on the sector in the region.

Benue State budgeted N14.31 billion to the health sector but spent N6.07 billion. The state recorded a 42.44 percent performance in the health sector.

In Kwara State, only N2.27 billion of the budgeted N8.37 billion was spent on the health sector. The state recorded 27.06 percent in terms of implementation performance.

The health sector recorded a 73.83 percent performance in Nasarawa State. The state spent N4.39 billion out of the budgeted N5.95 billion.

Across the states, only Kogi State spent a good proportion of its health budget on capital expenditure. The state spent 66 percent of the N7.73 billion health expenditure budget on capital items. 

Kogi State spent N5.1 billion of the budgeted N4.45 billion on capital projects.

The other states in the region spent less than 15 percent of their health expenditure budgets on capital items.

In Benue State, 14 percent of its health budget went to capital projects. The state spent N855.3 million of the budgeted N4.25 billion capital expenditure budget. This shows a 20.1 percent capital expenditure performance on health.

Kwara State spent N39.01 million of the budgeted capital expenditure in the health sector. This represented 0.63 percent of its capital budget on health. Capital expenditure took an insignificant proportion of the total health expenditure.

Nasarawa State’s health capital expenditure represented five percent of its total health expenditure budget. The state spent N209.7 million of the budgeted N1.01 billion on capital items. This gave the state a 20.74 percent performance.

Niger State had an 8.29 percent health capital expenditure performance after spending N755.9 million of the budgeted N9.12 billion. The amount spent on capital expenditure represented 11 per cent of the total health spend.

Education sector

Benue State had the highest budget for education in the region. The state earmarked N20.27 billion but spent N11.82 billion by the end of the third quarter of 2022.

In Kogi State, N16.54 billion was budgeted, however N8.72 billion was spent. Kwara State budgeted and spent N16.84 billion and N16.01 billion respectively on education.

The education budget in Nasarawa State was N15.97 billion, but the state spent N11.21 billion of the amount.

Niger State had an education budget of N19.96 billion, but it spent N9.19 billion by the end of the third quarter.

Kwara State had the best education budget performance in the region. The state spent 95.05 percent of its education budget in the priod under review.

The performances in other states were: 58.32 percent in Benue State; 52.68 percent in Kogi State; 70.23 percent in Nasarawa State; and 46.03 percent in Niger State.

Only Kwara State spent more of its education budget on capital expenditure, though it was less than 39 percent. The state spent 38 percent of its N15.62 billion education expenditure budget on capital items.

Nasarawa State spent 12 percent of its N13.36 billion education spending budget on capital items; in Niger State, 4 percent of its N12.21 billion was spent on capital items. Benue State spent a paltry 1 percent of its education expenditure on capital projects.

Agricultural sector

Benue State had the highest budget for the agriculture sector in the region, but there are better states in terms of implementation. Data show that the state earmarked N5.52 billion for the agriculture sector but spent N1.88 billion. This represented a 34.02 percent performance for the sector by the state.

Nasarawa State recorded the best agriculture sector performance after spending 53.32 percent of its budget. The state budgeted N2.25 billion but spent N1.31 billion. The state also had the least budget for agriculture in the region.

In Kogi State, N3.58 billion was budgeted for the agric sector, but N363.68 million was spent. This gave the state a 10.10 percent performance.

Nasarawa State had an 18.18 percent performance after spending N622 million of the N2.45 billion budget.

In Niger State, the agriculture sector received N2.18 billion of the N4.1 billion budgeted for the first three quarters of 2022. This gave the state a 53.13 percent performance.

Niger and Benue states made most of their agriculture expenditure budgtes on capital items. However, the amounts were less than 50 percent of the total agricultural spending. Niger State spent 49 percent of N2.18 billion of agriculture expenditure on capital projects. in Benue State, it was 38 percent of N1.88 billion.

Nasarawa State spent 30 percent of its agricultural expenditure of N1.31 billion on capital items. Kwara and Kogi states spent less than 15 percent of their total agriculture expenditure on capital items. In Kwara State, only 14 percent of N622 million earmarked for expenditure went to capital items.