Nigerian states’ revenues rise 93%, but education spending drops — World Bank
The World Bank reports that Nigerian states’ revenues rose by 93% between 2023 and 2025, but the share of expenditure on education declined. Read More:…
State governments in Nigeria have seen their revenues swell in recent years, aided by the removal of the petrol subsidy, naira devaluation that boosted FAAC allocations in naira terms, and renewed efforts by states to grow internally generated revenue. How that windfall is spent has become a major point of scrutiny, since education, health and other human capital sectors are constitutionally the primary responsibility of state and local governments rather than the federal government.
The World Bank's finding that education's share of state spending fell even as overall revenue rose by 93% between 2023 and 2025 speaks to a long-standing concern among development economists and civil society groups: that windfalls from oil revenue or subsidy savings do not automatically translate into stronger social investment. Nigeria already ranks among countries with the highest numbers of out-of-school children, and state-level budget priorities are central to that crisis. The coverage across newsrooms is consistent on the headline figures, but none of the reports yet break down which specific states drove the decline, how the additional revenue was spent instead, or what the World Bank is recommending states do differently.