2025 Budget: Outcry As Agency Appropriates N6bn On Frivolities

A fresh wave of public outrage has trailed the revelations that over N6 billion in the 2025 budget of the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation (NCAM), Ilorin, Kwara State under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, has been earmarked for projects widely seen as unrelated to its core mandate.

An examination of NCAM’s N86.2 billion budget shows line items such as N1 billion for the renovation of a leprosy centre in Abia State, N500 million for a medical outreach for widows and vulnerable persons in Cross River State and N250 million for the installation training of CCTV in Lagos State.

In addition, N150 million was allocated for drug abuse sensitisation and capacity building in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and another N100m to train hairdressers in Kwara State.

LEADERSHIP further scrutiny of the allocation revealed other eyebrow-raising projects, including N1.2 billion for constructing three blocks of classrooms in Plateau State, N400 million for a multipurpose civic centre in Niger State and N100 million for interlocking roads in a market in Ogun State, all under the agriculture ministry’s budget.

Other curious entries in the budget include N1 billion for the phased rehabilitation of Aliyu Ndako Memorial Stadium in Bida, Niger State, N200 million for solar-powered motorized boreholes in Kwara State.

While the ministry of agriculture is traditionally tasked with driving food security, boosting rural economies and enhancing agricultural productivity, critics argued that resources are being diverted to non-agricultural projects, leaving core challenges unaddressed.

Financial analyst Kalu Aja who expressed his dismay on social media platform X, highlighted several of these line items and questioned their relevance.

“Let me show you a good example of the uncoordinated waste in the 2025 Federal budget. I have taken a random page, edited nothing. You can calculate the total cost and determine which are the responsibility of the ministry of agriculture,” he wrote.

“If the ministry of agriculture with food inflation of almost 30% is spending N100m to train hairdressers, you should be worried. No coordination, no planning. It’s just individual emperors spending as they see fit.”

The outrage comes at a time when Nigeria is grappling with high food inflation and low mechanisation.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, has already distanced the ministry’s leadership from the questionable allocations.

Speaking of the board chairmen of agencies under the ministry recently, the minister warned against the inclusion of non-agricultural projects in agency budgets.

“We have to be careful on our budgeting process and implementation, just before the budget defence period, where I cautioned on the inclusion of non-agricultural projects in the budget, something that has no bearing on agriculture.”

For example, the minister added, “I see no reason why Lake Chad Research Institute should be building roads in Enugu, please, call our attention to these inclusions in the budget.”

He also lamented the damage to the ministry’s reputation, saying, “We had some situations where civil society organisations will be writing damaging reports about our research institutes in the newspapers. It is becoming more embarrassing.”

LEADERSHIP also recalled that civic tech organisation, BudgIT had earlier flagged several suspicious allocations across ministries in the 2025 Appropriation Act.

The organisation urged greater scrutiny and legislative oversight to curb waste and ensure alignment with national development goals.