State governments are receiving billions of naira through a relatively new Federation Account Allocation Committee intervention for infrastructure and security, with available half-year budget implementation reports showing that at least N435bn in revenue was recorded under the funding window by 29 states between January and June 2026.

🇳🇬 Here's What Happened

The intervention, classified in state financial records as “State Infrastructure and Security” under the National Chart of Accounts code 11010313, is distinct from the FAAC conventional statutory allocations but distributed as regular FAAC revenue. No amount was disbursed for this purpose in the corresponding period of 2025.

The data was obtained from the fiscal performance of each state, utilising data from the Q1 to Q2 budget performance reports from January to June 2026 obtained from Open Nigerian States, a BudgIT-backed website that serves as a repository of government budget data, and was analysed by our correspondent on Thursday.

The intervention comes as Nigeria battles worsening insecurity and a huge infrastructure deficit, with banditry, kidnappings, attacks on schools and communities, poor roads and other infrastructure gaps placing increasing pressure on state governments.

📌 Key Details

Between March 2024 and May 2026, no fewer than 603 pupils, students and teachers were abducted in seven mass school abductions, despite the government’s N145bn Safe Schools Initiative.

The government recently intensified efforts to address the security crisis, including the expansion of the Nigerian Army from eight to 12 divisions and the approval for the recruitment of 28,000 additional soldiers. However, the scale of insecurity has increased pressure on state governments to also invest more in security and critical infrastructure.

It was against this backdrop, and following the removal of petrol subsidy, that President Bola Tinubu approved the Infrastructure Support Fund for the 36 states in July 2023 to strengthen their capacity to invest in roads, agriculture, health, education, power, water and other critical areas.

A June 2025 publication by The PUNCH disclosed that between March 2024 and May 2025, state governments and the Federal Capital Territory received a total sum of N1.6tn for infrastructure and security projects. Three years after the pronouncement, this funding has now emerged as another revenue source for meeting government obligations by sub-nationals.

Our correspondent reviewed data covering 32 states for which information was available to make this submission. Of the 32 states reviewed, 16 specifically reported a combined N265.50bn under the dedicated State Infrastructure and Security revenue line.

Another 13 states reported a combined N169.75bn as other separately disclosed FAAC-related revenue, although their reports did not classify the money directly as infrastructure and security funding.

📰 Source: Punch Nigeria