MAFAP presents initial findings of public expenditure review for Nigeria
The Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP) team presented initial findings of a review on public spending towards food and agriculture in Nigeria to government officials in Abuja on 15 November 2023, becoming the first time FAO has undertaken an in-depth analysis of federal spending on food and agriculture for the West African country.
The analysis, based on data collected by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) - an extra-Ministerial Department of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning (FMFNP) - covered budgeted and actual expenditure data by all ministries, departments and agencies for the last 7 years (2015-2021). Once compiled, these public expenditure data were subsequently categorized by the MAFAP team together with country experts to reveal the level and composition of federal spending on agriculture.
The initial findings, presented to around 20 officials of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, OAGF, FMFNP, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the National Bureau of Statistics, show that:
- The federal budget allocated to food and agriculture has grown over the years from around NGN 322 billion in 2015 to around NGN 950 billion in 2021, representing 6% on average of the federal budget over the period.
- Despite this growth, it is below the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme target to allot 10% of the total budget to agriculture.
- The bulk of spending (over 70%) during the analysed period went to agriculture-supportive expenditures benefitting agricultural performance indirectly, of which rural education took up over two-thirds.
- Agriculture-specific spending represented, on average, one-third of the federal budget for food and agriculture: of that, support to private agents of the sector (producers, consumers and other agents) accounted for 5%, while expenditure providing general support to the sector averaged at 20%, and administrative costs stood at less than 2% throughout the period.
- Most spending targeting private agents benefited consumers in the form of food aid, which accounted for 12% of agriculture-specific expenditures, on average.
- Support to individual producers (8% of ag-specific spending) came in the form of farm subsidies, including irrigation (4%), input subsidies (3%) and on-farm services (1%).
- On average, almost 80% of agriculture-specific expenditures were spent on the crop sector, 10% on livestock, 6% on forestry, and 5% on fisheries.
Following the presentation of the methodology used and the results of the analysis, the MAFAP country team – Jean-Phillippe Lodugnon-Harding and Manson Nwafor – led a session to discuss possible policy areas where the programme could provide further technical support and evidence for policy change and reform options.
A full country policy monitoring review for Nigeria, which will include the public expenditure analysis presented this week as well as a price incentives analysis for selected commodities and general policy coherence assessment for the sector, is scheduled to be published in 2024.
For more information, contact: [email protected].