Kano State spent only N775.4m of the N5.21bn allocated to the Ministry of Women Affairs, Children and Disabled in 2025, leaving more than N4.43bn unspent as women, children and persons with disabilities continued to face barriers to healthcare, education and economic opportunities.
An analysis of the state’s 2025 budget implementation reports shows that the ministry, which is responsible for delivering programmes targeting some of Kano’s most vulnerable residents, achieved just 14.9 per cent of its revised budget.
The figures raise questions about the state government’s commitment to translating its poverty alleviation promises into practical support for vulnerable households, particularly as the ministry’s budget included projects for women’s empowerment, child protection, special-needs education and disability inclusion.
The ministry’s capital expenditure was particularly low. It spent N241.1m of its N4.34bn capital allocation, leaving approximately N4.10bn unspent.
Capital expenditure typically finances projects and investments such as school rehabilitation, facilities for persons with disabilities, economic empowerment programmes and other interventions intended to improve living conditions.
The low execution rate therefore represents a significant gap between the government’s approved plans and the expenditure recorded for the year. However, the figures alone do not establish which beneficiaries missed assistance or whether the unspent funds were never released.
The analysis by THE WHISTLER draws on Kano State’s 2025 approved budget and quarterly budget implementation reports published by the state government’s Ministry of Planning and Budget.
Disability programmes face funding questions
Kano’s approved 2025 budget contained specific allocations for disability-related services, including N50m for establishing and operating a Persons with Disabilities Commission.
It also earmarked N111.8m for the renovation of Tudun Maliki Special School for persons with disabilities and N50m for expanding the school’s special-needs facilities.
The provisions indicated that the government had identified institutional support and specialised education as areas requiring public investment.
Yet the ministry’s overall capital expenditure stood at just 5.6 per cent of its N4.34bn allocation, according to the year-end figures.
The aggregate expenditure report does not, on its own, establish whether the three disability-related projects were implemented, partially completed or abandoned. Their individual expenditure records and physical progress require verification.
Nevertheless, the low capital execution raises concerns about the pace at which the government translated its disability-related budget commitments into facilities and services.
The consequences of inadequate services are documented in communities across the state.
In a November 2025 investigation, Premium Times reported the experience of Taraba Rabiu, a 28-year-old wheelchair user in Bichi Local Government Area, who struggled to access antenatal care because the primary health centre available to her had no ramp, midwife or nurse.
“I prefer giving birth at home because it is more comforting and safer for me,” she told the newspaper, describing the difficulties she faced accessing the facility.
Her husband, Musa, who also lives with a disability, described their experience during her pregnancies as extremely difficult, saying, “We had no support system, not even drugs. So, what can we do?”
The report documented the practical barriers confronting PWDs, including inaccessible facilities, inadequate equipment, shortages of trained personnel and the cost of travelling to better-equipped hospitals.
These accounts were published before the 2025 financial year ended. They do not prove that the ministry’s underspending caused the specific difficulties experienced by the families, but they demonstrate why effective public investment in disability inclusion matters.
Another family featured in the investigation was that of Rabi Saleh, a 16-year-old girl with multiple disabilities who had never visited a hospital. Her mother, Binta Saleh, said the family could not afford to take her to a hospital in the city.
“We can’t afford the city hospital. I wish my daughter could get health access here so she can get better and be like every other girl,” she said.
The accounts raise a central question for the state government: what happens to vulnerable residents when allocations intended to strengthen support systems do not translate into accessible services?
Women’s economic empowerment at risk
The budget also contained provisions for programmes intended to improve women’s livelihoods and economic independence.
Among them was N505m for the Kano State Women Empowerment Programme to support vulnerable women. The approved budget also provided N150m for training 1,000 poor and vulnerable women in backyard agriculture and N60m for sensitising women entrepreneurs.
Other allocations included funding for women’s development centres, cottage industries and initiatives to support women farmers.
Such programmes can provide opportunities for women to acquire skills, establish small businesses, improve household incomes and reduce dependence on irregular earnings.
However, the ministry’s overall expenditure figures suggest that most of its approved capital programme was not executed during the year.
The available aggregate report does not establish how much of the N505m women’s empowerment allocation was actually spent or how many women received assistance under the programme. Those details should be obtained from the ministry’s programme-level expenditure records and beneficiary registers.
The distinction is important because a budget allocation is not evidence that a beneficiary received support. Similarly, low overall expenditure does not automatically mean every intervention failed.
In February 2025, The Guardian reported that the Kano State Government’s N50,000 monthly empowerment scheme targeted 5,200 women and widows across the state’s 44 local government areas.
The government said the initiative was designed to reduce poverty and hunger by providing seed capital for small businesses.
That scheme represents a separate government intervention and should not be confused with the ministry’s budget execution. Its reported beneficiaries and disbursements would need to be independently verified to assess its reach and sustainability.
The broader concern is whether such interventions, alongside the ministry’s other programmes, are reaching women who need support and whether budgeted projects are being implemented consistently.
