Agric budget gets lower allocations since 2023, says ActionAid

 

The National Agricultural allocations for 37 states including FCT has been reported to have had lower budgets as against 10% Maputo stipulations which Nigeria was a signatory.

This was contained in a recently released report by the ActionAid organization this Monday.

It was stated in the report that the total Agricultural allocations from 2023 till date was not up to the stipulated 10% of the total national budget even as there were  distinct increase in the total national budget that didn't reflect much on the total percentage being expected as Maputo signatory member.

According to the report " The National aggregate budget increased from N37.88 trillion in 2023 to N107.73 trillion in 2026. Although the share of the allocations to the agriculture sector as a percentage increased from N1.91% in 2023 to 4.46% in 2025, and 4.58% in 2026. It remains below the Maputo recommendation of 10%."

The reports further said that " The national budget is the sum of the planned government spending for FCT, the 36 states and the Federal Government of Nigeria for the reference period"

It was explained in the report that there were lower allocations to the sector as " 2023 to 2026 national budget shows an increasing trajectory that accompanied by a lower share of allocation to the agriculture sector that is below the global benchmark recommendations and the estimated average for the sub- Saharan African countries by AfDB"

Actionaids also observed poor implementation performance of the sector's capital project by all the states which majority of them had given above average percentage of their allocations for agriculture capital projects with poor implementation.

" All the states allocated 50-98% of their Agricultural budgets to the capital project. However, the level of implementation has been poor over the years thereby creating missed opportunities for internal revenue generation and job creation" said the report.

Also it was reported that FG enhanced institutional development for agriculture and livestock funding, but emphasized that releases for the capital budget remained critical even as implementation for 2023 attained 94.05% but declined to 78.39% in 2024, and to 43.77% in 2025.