As Nigeria prepares for another budgeting circle, stakeholders that participated in an Inter-Agency Learning Meeting on Gender Responsive Education Budgeting (GREB) in Kano, have called on the government at levels to scale-up the adoption of Gender-Responsive Budgeting Practices in the country.
Making the call during a one -day meeting organised by ‘Bridge Connect Africa’ in partnership with MALALA Foundation, held for stakeholders in the education, and media sectors, on Wednesday, in Kano, specifically are demanding that the needs of the Girl -Child and People Living with Disability (PWDs), across the country, be factored into the next year budget.
The position of the stakeholders on the issue was made known by Yakubu Muhammad Anas, an education consultant with Yusfah Education and Development Services Limited.
The stakeholders noted that responsive budgeting integrates the specific needs of girls and persons with disabilities into budget processes to ensure equitable resource distribution and outcomes for these vulnerable groups, addressing disparities in areas like education, health economic participation.
Often budgets made at all levels of governance in Nigeria, often fail to account for the diverse realities of different groups, leading to unintended negative consequences and reinforcing existing inequalities, while, in most cases funds are allocated to programs and infrastructure that specifically address the needs of girls generally.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria’s 2025 Appropriation Bill through Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) initiatives, allocates the sum of N148.05 to the WEE, reflecting what was described as 17.73 percent increase from the 2024 budget.
“However, despite this nominal increase, WEE funding remains a small fraction of the total capital expenditure (0.99%) and overall budget size (0.29%), raising concerns about its effectiveness in addressing gender disparities.
“The budget classifies WEE initiatives into seven categories, with the largest allocations directed towards Grant and Financial Support (46.3%), Infrastructural Development (38.69%), and Training and Empowerment (5.99%). Meanwhile, funding for Health and Well-being (1.38%), Policy and Governance (0.70%), Awareness and Advocacy (0.12%), and Monitoring and Evaluation (6.81%) remains relatively low. A notable decline is observed in the number of WEE-specific projects, dropping by 25% from 647 in 2024 to 162 in 2025.
“In the same vein, the combined WEE projects for women and other groups decreased by 43 percent, with the Ministry of Women Affairs receiving the highest allocation (N72.64 billion), reflecting an 834% increase, while the Ministries of Health and Social Welfare, Sports Development, Education, and Agriculture and Food Security also play key roles in WEE implementation.
“However, the effectiveness of WEE programs is hindered by fragmentation across multiple ministries, a low share of total national expenditure, poor gender disaggregated data, and inflationary pressures reducing real funding impact.
“To maximize benefits, there is an urgent need to increase WEE-specific funding, adopt gender-responsive budgeting practices, enhance institutional frameworks, expand financial inclusion initiatives, and improve monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure transparency, efficiency, and impactful outcomes for women’s economic empowerment,” information extracted from a report generated by Development Research and Projects Centre, seen by BusinessDay, stated.
“All people, including children with disabilities, are entitled to their rights and freedoms outlined in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights regardless of socio-economic, political, and other circumstances. Most notably, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), elaborates on the rights of persons with disabilities.
“The CRPD is explicit that discrimination against any person based on disability is a violation of the inherent dignity and worth of the human being. There are compelling reasons why state parties should ensure disability inclusion in policies, plans, budgets, and service delivery. Among others, persons with disabilities are far more likely to live in poverty than those without.
“They also face significantly higher costs of living and have lower access to essential social services. In addition, most persons with disabilities have limited access to jobs and sustained incomes. Persons with disabilities and their families require more average income to have the same standard of living as a household without a person with disability due to these extra costs.
“Costs of disability can be markedly reduced if the government and society intervene early, including through government-funded programs. The opposite is also true, resulting in huge costs of inaction. Persons with disabilities are referenced in several sections of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development and covered by every goal”, the report highlighted.
Commenting on the situation as it concerned kano state at the Inter-Agency Learning Meeting of GREB, Yakubu Mohammad Anas, noted that 97 percent of all the Primary and Secondary Schools in Kano state, are for boys, a situation that leaving a large scale of the girl-child, and PWDs, out the scheme of education.
He explained that it was the unfortunate situation prevailing in the state, that pushing Bridge Connect Africa, to enlist the support of the MALALA Foundation in initiating the BAGE Project designed to bridge access to girls’ education geared at fostering enabling environment through promoting increased investment in delivering education to girl child and PWDs.
Anas further explained that the stakeholders are advocating for government, and community partnership in the implementation of the GREB agenda that has as its overall objective the boosting of girl child and PWDs enrolment in the state educational institutions.
Also, providing insight into the programme, Fatima Musa Aliyu, who is the COO of Bridge Connect Africa Initiative (BCAI), disclosed that the body which is non-profit, non-governmental organisation, was established to drive education access, skills development, and empowerment for girl-child, and PWDs in Africa.
