FG’s 2026 budget favours motorcycles over skills amid job crisis

…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.

Five years after graduating from the University of Ibadan, the 32-year-old earns a living driving a tricycle after more than 100 unsuccessful job applications.

“I could barely feed myself. I didn’t have the money or time to learn technology or other modern skills,” Akinjide said. “I make just enough to survive.”

While Akinjide found a hire-purchase agreement, Bello Garba, a motorcycle rider in Lagos, said he was gifted a motorcycle by a politician in Kano State.

Nigeria is not suffering from a shortage of workers. It is suffering from a shortage of skilled workers.

The World Bank estimates fewer than 184,000 Nigerians complete technical and vocational education each year, while employers report increasing difficulty recruiting workers with the skills modern industries require. The International Labour Organisation similarly identifies a widening mismatch between education and labour-market demand.

The World Bank estimated that 12 percent of Nigerian youths are NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training), indicating that many are neither acquiring skills nor participating in the labour market.

The report noted that employers struggle to recruit workers with the technical skills they need, while many graduates of vocational programmes are unable to secure jobs in their areas of training because of weak links between training institutions and industry, outdated curricula and inadequate facilities.

Although the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) puts Nigeria’s unemployment rate at 4.3 percent, over 60 percent of the population still live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.

Yet the federal budget directs substantially larger sums toward distributing motorcycles than expanding technical training.

Politics trump productivity

BusinessDay found that most motorcycle and tricycle allocations originate as constituency projects nominated by lawmakers rather than investments tied to a national workforce strategy.

Many of the motorcycle and tricycle empowerment programmes are allocated to the North, where there is a higher rate of poverty and youth unemployment. The Northeast and Northwest have poverty rates above 75 percent.

In Kano, FG budgeted over N2 billion for the distribution of motorcycles and tricycles to youths as empowerment. However, N335 million was allocated to vocational, computer, and technical training for the state.

In Sokoto and Katsina states, the government appropriated N2 billion and N1.2 billion, respectively, for the distribution of motorcycles and tricycles as empowerment for youths. However, Sokoto got N55 million for two vocational/artisanal skill acquisition programmes, while Katsina got zero allocation.

For Gombe State, projects involving the distribution of motorcycles and tricycles as youth empowerment in the 2026 federal budget amount to over N1.5 billion. However, there was no allocation for any skill acquisition programme.

Projects involving the distribution of motorcycles and tricycles for youth empowerment in Kaduna State were allocated N749 million. In contrast, only N70 million was budgeted for a single skill acquisition project: “Skills Acquisition Training and Empowerment for Youth and Women Across Kaduna North Senatorial District”.

Other states with higher allocations for motorcycle empowerment than skills acquisition for youths include Kebbi, with N588 million for motorcycle empowerment and N252 million for skill acquisition; Osun with N154 million for motorcycle empowerment and N35 million for a skill acquisition programme; and Cross River State with an allocation of N189 million for motorcycles and N7 million for skill acquisition.

Who is implementing the projects?

BusinessDay’s analysis of the 2026 Appropriation Act identified 204 projects involving the distribution of motorcycles, tricycles and related empowerment items across federal MDAs.

The projects are spread across 54 implementing agencies, but a handful account for the largest share of the allocations.

The Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on the Sustainable Development Goals (OSSAP-SDGs) oversees the biggest individual allocation, including a N5.6 billion project for the procurement of multipurpose motorcycles and solar-powered vehicles.

The Federal Co-operative College, Ibadan, is responsible for about N3.78 billion worth of projects, including a N2.87 billion intervention for the distribution of motorcycles and tricycles across the six geopolitical zones.

The National Productivity Centre manages about N3.07 billion across 18 projects, with two separate N700 million allocations for the provision of motorcycles in the Northwest.

Another major implementing agency is the Federal Co-operative College, Oji River, Enugu State, which has the highest number of individual projects. The institution is overseeing 25 projects valued at about N2.2 billion.

Motorcycles account for the largest share of the empowerment items. BusinessDay’s analysis found 114 motorcycle projects worth about N12.6 billion earmarked for the geopolitical zones.

The budget also includes 48 tricycle projects valued at about N7.8 billion.

The analysis further showed that funding is concentrated in a few states. Niger State accounts for the highest allocation at about N5.9 billion, followed by Kano with N2.54 billion across 23 projects, Gombe with N2.11 billion across 11 projects, and Sokoto with N1.95 billion across 20 projects.

The restriction paradox

Findings by BusinessDay showed that some of the states with the highest allocations for motorcycle empowerment also have partial restrictions on commercial motorcycle operations due to security concerns.

The Kano State Government banned commercial motorcycle activities within nine metropolitan local government areas, including Kano Municipal, Gwale, Dala, Nassarawa, Tarauni, Ungogo (Jido), Dawakin Kudu, Fagge, and Kumbotso.

However, BusinessDay’s analysis of the 2026 budget shows that N465.5 million was budgeted for motorcycle empowerment for youths in five of the nine local government areas where the Kano government has banned commercial motorcycle activities.

For the Dala local government area, the government allocated N350 million for the purchase and distribution of motorcycles to youths. For Nasarawa local government, N70 million was budgeted for the same purpose; N21 million for motorcycle empowerment for youths in Tarauni local government; N14 million for Ungogo local government; and N10.5 million for similar empowerment in Dawakin Kudu local government.

The Katsina State Government recently banned motorcycles in two local government areas: Matazu and Musawa, in a move to disrupt the movement and operational activities of bandits and kidnappers, who frequently rely on motorcycles for transportation.

However, BusinessDay Investigations found that N350 million was allocated to the “Provision of motorcycles for youth empowerment” in the same Matazu and Musawa federal constituency.

In Gombe State, where the federal government allocated N1.5 billion for the distribution of motorcycles and tricycles for youth empowerment, there is currently a partial restriction on the commercial motorcycle movements imposed by the state police command

Some states have, at one point or another, placed a ban on commercial motorcycle operations, all indicting the two-wheeler for its role in violence and insurgency.

Between 2021 and 2026, more than 10 of Nigeria’s 36 states have announced some partial or strict restrictions on commercial motorcycle activities, all for security reasons.

Motorcycles, tricycles not a pathway to economic development — Experts

The World Bank attributes the country’s low supply of skilled workers to outdated training equipment, shortages of qualified instructors and weak collaboration between training institutions and employers, while the ILO says the gap between skills supplied by the education system and those demanded by employers continues to widen.

Economic experts have questioned the prioritisation of distributing motorcycles and tricycles as youth empowerment tools, arguing that such interventions fall short of addressing Nigeria’s deeper unemployment and economic challenges.

Lekan Soneye, a lecturer and scholar in the political economy of labour, said the distribution of motorcycles and tricycles does not align with the broader goal of economic development.

Speaking with our correspondent, Soneye argued that reducing a large segment of Nigeria’s youthful population to commercial motorcycle and tricycle operations risks entrenching economic stagnation rather than creating sustainable opportunities.

“While other countries are investing in technologies that drive productivity and economic growth, Nigeria is distributing motorcycles. At a time when the world is moving towards electric vehicles and advanced manufacturing, our priorities appear misplaced,” he said.

According to him, government resources would yield greater returns if channelled into improving access to education, expanding technical training programmes and strengthening engineering-related skills that can connect young people to higher-value jobs.

Rasaq Fatai, an economist, also said government interventions should focus on building long-term capacities rather than providing assets that may offer only temporary relief.

“If you give a young person a tricycle and circumstances force them to sell it, or they are involved in an accident without insurance coverage, what happens next?” he asked.

Fatai noted that while skills acquisition programmes are preferable to the distribution of motorcycles and tricycles, empowerment initiatives should not stop at training alone.

He called for greater coordination among MDAs to ensure youth empowerment policies translate into sustainable economic opportunities.

“The government should not just provide skills. It should create an ecosystem that allows young people to access both domestic and export markets,” he said.

Fatai further argued that many empowerment programmes fail because they are not backed by broader economic policies capable of generating long-term jobs and wealth.

“They fail to implement policies that can truly emancipate people. These projects also create opportunities for abuse because there is often little transparency around how the beneficiaries are selected and how the assets are distributed,” he said.

Drawing comparisons with common government-backed microenterprise schemes, he questioned why policymakers often encourage low-income ventures while pursuing different aspirations for their own families.

“If you are a woman, they tell you to go and sell akara or roasted corn. But how many of the children of those making these policies are engaged in such businesses? People say everyone must start somewhere, but why should we always start from the lowest rung when better opportunities can be created?” he asked.

The economists urged the government to prioritise reforms that can create skilled employment, including investments in education, manufacturing and strategic industries such as textiles, steel and petrochemicals.

Fatai pointed to the collapse of Nigeria’s textile sector as an example of missed opportunities, noting that thousands of jobs were lost between 1980 and 2022 as factories shut down across the country.

He also cited the decline of the steel industry and the deterioration of state-owned refineries, arguing that their revival could create significant employment opportunities for young graduates.

“Our public refineries are largely redundant today. Every year, Nigerian universities produce graduates in petrochemical engineering and other technical disciplines. If these facilities were functioning efficiently, they could absorb a sizeable number of these graduates and stimulate wider economic activity,” he said.