Ministry Of Information To Spend Over ₦9bn Outside Statutory Mandate

By The Insight Team

The Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation has earmarked ₦9.49 billion in its 2026 budget for road construction, health centres, boreholes, food distribution, empowerment programmes, classrooms, transformers and other constituency-style projects that appear unrelated to its statutory mandate of public information management, image building and cultural promotion.

An analysis of the 2026 Appropriation Act shows that the projects, valued at a combined ₦9.49 billion, were captured under the ministry’s budget despite its mandate, as published on its official website, which centres on managing the image and reputation of Nigeria, disseminating credible public information, promoting tourism and preserving the nation’s cultural values.

Among the largest allocations is ₦2.1 billion for the construction, asphalting and drainage of rural farming roads in selected locations in the Niger Delta States. Another ₦1.4 billion was budgeted for the construction and installation of transformers in selected communities in southern states.

The ministry also proposed ₦1.4 billion for the procurement of industrial sewing machines for unemployed youths and women in farming communities in the South-South, alongside another ₦1.4 billion for the provision of welding equipment, grinding machines and vulcanising machines to empower youths and women to establish small businesses in Niger Delta states.

Other allocations include ₦700 million for the construction of a block of classrooms in a South-South state school, ₦500 million for the provision of food items to less-privileged people across all local government areas of Jigawa North-West Senatorial District, ₦300 million for empowerment materials in Port Harcourt Federal Constituency II, and ₦200 million each for the completion of Ehinoghe Health Centre, construction of a box culvert in Benue State, the provision of solar-powered boreholes, tricycles, empowerment equipment and other community projects.

The budget further contains allocations for the supply of fertiliser to farmers, motorcycles, additional boreholes and food items for widows and orphans in Bauchi State, as well as youth empowerment programmes in Ekiti State.

The spending pattern mirrors recent findings involving other federal institutions executing projects outside their statutory responsibilities.

Earlier budget analysis showed that the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Education, an agency under the Federal Ministry of Education established to reduce illiteracy and integrate Almajiri and out-of-school children into formal education and vocational training, allocated ₦8.4 billion of its 2026 budget to road construction projects across Ogun, Katsina and Ekiti states.

The commission received ₦29.4 billion in the 2026 budget, with almost 29 per cent of the allocation dedicated to road construction and rehabilitation projects rather than education-focused interventions.

The trend followed earlier findings from Govspend data showing that the Federal Co-operative College, Oji River, Enugu State, and the Federal College of Horticulture, Dadin-Kowa, Gombe State, spent a combined ₦25.92 billion on projects that appeared unrelated to their statutory mandates, with ₦2.85 billion of the transactions flagged as duplicate payments.

Amid growing scrutiny of off-mandate spending by Ministries, Departments and Agencies, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, recently directed agencies under his supervision to adhere strictly to their statutory responsibilities.

“All programmes and initiatives of the ministry shall be aligned with the administration’s priorities of food security, economic growth, job creation, poverty eradication and inclusivity,” the minister said.

He added that agencies must focus strictly on their statutory responsibilities and avoid executing unrelated projects.

The Ministry of Information and National Orientation states on its official website that its vision is “To Build A Dynamic and Participatory Public Information System that Fosters National Unity, Growth and Development As Well As Sustains the Positive Values and Culture of the Nigerian People.”

Its mission is “To Establish and Maintain A Robust Information Dissemination Mechanism that Promotes Our Tourism Potentials and Enhance Our Cultural Values.”

The ministry further states that its mandate is the “Management of the Image, Reputation and Promotion of the Culture of the People and Government of Nigeria through a Dynamic Public Information System that Facilitates Access by Citizens and the Global Community to Credible and Timely Information.”

The inclusion of roads, health facilities, food distribution, agricultural inputs and other constituency-style projects in the ministry’s 2026 budget stirs questions over budget discipline, procurement practices and the growing use of federal agencies to execute projects beyond the purposes for which they were established.