Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf has been dabbling in people’s love lives.
Earlier in August, he used ₦1.5 billion to sponsor a mass wedding for 1,500 couples in his state. With the youngest among those brides being 17, the event lasted two days and included ₦200,000 for each couple’s dowry. Evidently, there’s no price too high for the governor when it comes to securing a husband for his girls.
But watching the Kano state government dole out billions raises questions about how else they handle state money. In particular, what else has the governor deemed worthy of the state’s funds to bring up its women? And how does it compare to the billions he was willing to spend on a two-day wedding?
Here’s how the numbers compare.
Possibly one of the Kano State Government’s largest budgetary allocations solely for women. The Women Empowerment Programme for 2026 is funded at ₦305 million for the year, about five times less than the ₦1.5 billion spent on the mass wedding.
The divide becomes even more significant when you factor in the duration for each budget. Where ₦1.5 billion was spent in two days, ₦305 million is expected to stretch through 12 months, covering every public vocational training, business support scheme, empowerment programme and a variety of government activities targeted at uplifting the women in Kano.
Where each couple received ₦200,000 naira and a free wedding on the ₦1.5 billion naira budget, if we were to divide the Women Empowerment Programme budget across the roughly eight million women in the city, each woman would receive an estimated ₦38.
Kano allocated ₦200 million to ecomonically empower vicitms of sexual and gender-based violence in 2026. This is a sensitive issue, and like anything of its nature, it demands financial help. In Kano’s case, that aid comes 7.5 times less in a year than the mass wedding’s two day budget.
The wedding proves Kano state wishes to see its women married off. But what about provisions for issues within a marriage? In Nigeria, where an estimated 36% of married women experience sexual violence in the hands of their partners, economic support may be the only means through which affected women escape. But if the budget to escape comes at only a fraction of the cost to enter a marriage, then this budget is worth examining.
Significantly lower than the budgets before it, the state allocated ₦50 million to its Out-of-School Adolescent Girls Skills Acquisition Programme.
That is 30 times less than the mass wedding budget.
The programme provides skills and training to uneducated girls, giving them the opportunity to build economic independence.
In a world where 1 in every 5 out-of-school children is Nigerian, a programme like this may be the only fighting chance girls get at building a sustainable career and developing financial freedom.
But when both budgets are put side-by-side, it begs the question: Does the Kano state government see marriage as the only way women can build a life for themselves?
Another ₦50 million was allocated to the Sensitisation of Women Entrepreneurs. Once again 30 times less than the mass wedding budget.
While the previous budget sought to help young girls, this one strives to help working-class women. Entrepreneurship is one of the main career paths that doesn’t require a university degree. Women in Nigeria have held and grown businesses for years – tailoring, cooking, beadmaking, and so much more. It only makes sense to fund a programme that can put more women on the same path.
The smallest allocation on this list is the budget for enhancing inclusive education for girls with disabilities. At just ₦12.5 million, that is a whooping 120 times less than the mass wedding budget.
We’ve already discussed how poorly educated children in Nigeria are, but the statistics are far worse for kids with disabilities. In a country where UNICEF estimates that 95.5% of disabled children have no access to education, funding to get them in school should be a priority. However, the funding to get girls in the classroom is the lowest on this list.
Marriage isn’t a bad thing, and at a glance, none of these budgets are lacking. It’s clear Abba Kabir Yusuf and the Kano State government have considered many spheres of women’s lives, or else there wouldn’t be millions allocated to them at all.
But when you place all these budgets against the mass wedding’s allocation, it seems to give a clear picture of where Kano states’ priorities lie and what the government considers the best path for a woman’s growth.
When the budget spent on a two day wedding is multiple times higher than what supports, finances, empowers and educates women and girls annually, then it’s worth assessing how deeply and thoughtfully the Kano state government prioritise women’s issues.
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