Kano State recorded the highest expenditure on education among Nigerian states in the first quarter of 2026, with N59.11 billion spent during the period, according to data compiled by TheCable Index from state government budget performance reports.
Lagos followed with N39.93 billion, while Delta ranked third with N33.34 billion.
The figures show wide disparities in education spending across the states, with the amount recorded by Kano more than 12 times the N4.79 billion reported by Anambra, which ranked 32nd among the 34 states with available expenditure figures.
Oyo came fourth on the list with N28.24 billion, followed by Benue with N23.92 billion, Abia with N21.25 billion and Ekiti with N20.19 billion.
Bayelsa recorded N18.79 billion, while Kaduna and Bauchi reported N18.05 billion and N17.71 billion respectively.
Other states in the upper half of the ranking were Adamawa, with N16.95 billion; Ogun, N16.42 billion; Kogi, N15.09 billion; Katsina, N14.26 billion; and Akwa Ibom, N14.21 billion.
Nasarawa recorded N13.85 billion, followed by Gombe with N12.70 billion, Osun with N12.42 billion, Ebonyi with N12.36 billion and Kwara with N12.09 billion.
The lower half of the ranking included Enugu, which recorded N9.12 billion, Ondo with N8.66 billion, Plateau with N8.46 billion, Borno with N8.39 billion and Yobe with N8.33 billion.
Edo reported N7.84 billion, while Kebbi and Taraba recorded N7.40 billion and N7.38 billion respectively. Niger spent N7.15 billion, followed by Sokoto with N6.85 billion and Zamfara with N5.74 billion.
Anambra recorded N4.79 billion, while Cross River and Imo reported N3.87 billion and N3.52 billion respectively.
Jigawa was the only state listed as recording zero education expenditure during the quarter, while no figure was provided for Rivers State in the data.
However, The figures do not by themselves indicate the proportion of each state’s budget devoted to education or the level of budget implementation. States differ significantly in the size of their budgets, population, number of schools and the structure of their education systems.
The data therefore provides a picture of reported expenditure during the first three months of the year rather than a measure of which state has the strongest education system or allocates the largest share of its resources to the sector.
The wide gap in the reported figures nonetheless highlights the differences in the scale of public spending on education across the states as governments implement their 2026 budgets.
According to the data, a total of 34 states reported education expenditure for the quarter, while Jigawa recorded no spending and Rivers was not captured.
TheCable Index attributed the figures to data from the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and state budget performance records.
