NASS Inserted N8.4bn Road Projects Into Our Budget — Almajiri Commission

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The controversy over the N8.4 billion earmarked in the 2026 budget of the National Commission for Almajiri and Out of School Children Edu­cation for road construction (NCAOOSCE) has taken a fresh turn, with the commission in­sisting that the projects were inserted into its budget by mem­bers of the National Assembly.

The development has brought to the fore growing concerns over the integrity of Nigeria’s budget process, par­ticularly the practice of insert­ing projects into the budgets of Ministries, Departments and Agencies that fall outside their statutory mandates.

It has also renewed calls for greater transparency and ac­countability in public spending, amid fears that such allocations could undermine the effective delivery of programmes aimed at tackling the country’s educa­tion crisis, including the chal­lenge of millions of school drop­outs and out of school children.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the commission’s spokesperson, Nura Muham­mad, maintained that the proj­ects falling outside the agency’s statutory mandate were constit­uency projects inserted by the National Assembly.

In the 2026 budget, the agency also budgeted for several other off-mandate projects, including the procurement of ambulanc­es and medical equipment and the installation of solar power facilities.

The projects are located in Ogun, Ekiti and Katsina states.

There are, however, con­cerns about the insertion of off-mandate projects in the commission’s budget at a time the country is still grappling with over 15 million out-of-school children, the highest in the world.

But in the statement, Mu­hammad clarified that “these projects are National Assembly constituency projects incorpo­rated into the 2026 Appropria­tion Act for implementation through the commission. This is in line with the long-stand­ing budgetary practice under which constituency projects are assigned to Ministries, Depart­ments and Agencies (MDAs) for execution through the Appro­priation Act.

“As part of a duly enacted federal budget, every project assigned to the commission forms part of its implementa­tion responsibilities and will be executed in strict compliance with extant laws, financial reg­ulations and due procurement processes”.

Muhammad said the com­mission’s statutory mandate remained unchanged despite the controversy, stressing that it was established to coordinate national efforts aimed at re­forming the Almajiri education system and tackling the chal­lenge of out-of-school children.

According to him, the com­mission remains focused on expanding access to quality education, strengthening Al­majiri education, supporting states and other critical stake­holders, and implementing pro­grammes that directly improve the lives of millions of vulnera­ble children across the country.

He said the agency would continue to pursue its core mandate with renewed vigour, noting that it had already iden­tified and profiled more than 700,000 out of school children nationwide, established 119 learning centres across the country, and sustained ward-to-ward advocacy and community mobilisation.

Muhammad added that the commission was also working towards the full implementa­tion of the National Policy on Almajiri to reform the system and address the social vices as­sociated with it.

The spokesman reiterated that addressing the plight of Almajiri and out-of-school chil­dren remained the commis­sion’s foremost priority.