…N31bn for motorcycles, tricycles three times more than N9bn budget for vocational skills training
Nigeria is spending more than three times as much helping young people buy motorcycles and tricycles as against equipping them with the skills employers say the economy desperately needs, exposing a widening disconnect between government spending and the country’s long-term development priorities.
BusinessDay’s analysis of the 2026 Appropriation Act shows the Federal Government allocated N31 billion for the purchase and distribution of motorcycles and tricycles across 204 projects implemented by 54 ministries, departments and agencies, compared with just N9 billion for technical and vocational skills training.
The spending comes as the World Bank warns that more than half of Nigerians with post-secondary education cannot secure high-skilled jobs, while employers increasingly struggle to find workers with technical capabilities. Rather than investing in the country’s human capital deficit, the budget channels billions into mobility assets that economists say provide temporary relief but do little to raise productivity.
Qudus Akinjide is one of the unintended products of that policy.
