The 2026 budget proposal has placed the Federal Ministry of Works at the centre of a fresh controversy.
This followed the discovery of multiple non-infrastructure empowerment projects running into hundreds of millions of naira under the ministry’s allocations.
Details from the 2026 Appropriation Bill show that the Federal Ministry of Works plans to spend over ₦500 million on programmes linked to skills training, empowerment schemes, and social interventions across several states.
The budget document indicates that these allocations cover activities such as training hairdressers and make-up artists, distributing grinding machines, motorcycles, mini-vans, and funding anti-drug abuse campaigns.
These projects are spread across different geopolitical zones of the country.
One of the allocations shows that ₦35 million has been earmarked for the distribution of grinding machines to women in Ndokwa/Ukwani Federal Constituency in the South-South. The document did not specify the number of beneficiaries or machines to be supplied.
Another ₦35 million is listed for the training and empowerment of women in hairdressing, make-up, and soap production in Mikang, Shandam, and Qua’an Pan Federal Constituency of Plateau State in the North-Central zone.
In the North-East, the ministry plans to spend ₦70 million on skill acquisition and the provision of trade equipment for youths, women, and seven retirees in the Inyamaltu/Deba area of Gombe State.
The budget also provides for ₦70 million to be used in supplying mini pick-up vans, mini shuttle buses, and motorcycles to constituents in Abakaliki Federal Constituency of Ebonyi State in the South-East.
Another line item includes funding for training, sensitisation, advocacy, and youth empowerment programmes targeted at drug abuse in Zamfara State, located in the North-West.
Similar constituency-based projects appear in other parts of the budget under the ministry.
Nevertheless, the presence of these empowerment and social intervention projects under the Ministry of Works has raised concerns about the core mandate of the ministry, which is primarily responsible for road construction, rehabilitation, and other federal infrastructure.