Claim: Kano State spent ₦26.5 billion on Government House, the governor’s office and travels in the first six months of 2026.
Verdict: Misleading
By Hon. Muhammad Sanusi S. Kiru, FCIA
A claim that Kano State Government spent ₦26.5 billion on Government House, the governor’s office and travels in the first six months of 2026 is misleading because the figures cited combine expenditure from different administrative classifications in the state’s Budget Performance Report.
The claim appears to have been derived from the Kano State Second Quarter 2026 Budget Performance Report.
An examination of the report shows that although ₦25.869 billion was recorded under a broader Government House administrative classification, the amount did not represent expenditure by the governor personally or by Government House alone.
What the report says
The Budget Performance Report records cumulative expenditure of about ₦25.869 billion under the broader Government House administrative classification as of June 2026.
However, the classification covers several offices, directorates, agencies and government functions.
Government House proper, listed under administrative code 011100100100, recorded expenditure of about ₦3.288 billion during the period.
The amount represented about 8.3 per cent of its approved annual provision of approximately ₦39.514 billion.
Therefore, equating the entire ₦25.869 billion with expenditure by Government House proper or the governor’s immediate office does not accurately reflect the figures contained in the report.
What makes up the ₦25.869bn?
The broader figure includes expenditure by several establishments administratively grouped under Government House.
These include the Office of the Deputy Governor, Protocol Directorate, Media and Publicity establishments, among others.
For instance, the report indicates that about ₦4.471 billion recorded under the Deputy Governor’s Office was capital expenditure.
The Protocol Directorate also accounts for part of the expenditure captured under the broader classification.
These are separate government establishments, and their expenditure cannot automatically be described as personal expenditure by the governor.
What about the ₦626.95m travel figure?
The claim also adds ₦626,947,782.13, described as travel expenditure, to the broader Government House figure to arrive at approximately ₦26.5 billion.
The amount does appear in the Second Quarter 2026 Budget Performance Report.
However, the report places the figure under the Primary Healthcare expenditure section, specifically under Local Travel and Transport: Training.
There is, therefore, insufficient basis from the cited classification to describe the ₦626.95 million as expenditure on the governor’s travels.
The classification raises a key question about why an expenditure under Primary Healthcare and related to local travel and transport for training was added to the Government House administrative expenditure in calculating the ₦26.5 billion figure.
Did Government House spending increase?
A comparison with the corresponding period in 2025 also provides additional context.
The broader Government House administrative expenditure was about ₦28.84 billion in the first six months of 2025, compared with approximately ₦25.87 billion during the corresponding period of 2026.
This represents a decrease of about ₦2.97 billion, or 10.3 per cent.
The year-on-year figures therefore show a reduction, rather than an increase, in expenditure under the broader administrative classification.
Finding
The claim that Kano State spent ₦26.5 billion on Government House, the governor’s office and travels in six months is misleading.
While the ₦25.869 billion figure is contained in the official Budget Performance Report, it represents expenditure under a broad administrative classification covering several offices, directorates, agencies and government functions.
Government House proper accounted for approximately ₦3.288 billion.
Similarly, the ₦626.95 million described as travel expenditure appears in the report under Primary Healthcare – Local Travel and Transport: Training, rather than as an expenditure specifically identified as the governor’s travel.
The available figures also show that expenditure under the broader Government House administrative classification fell by about 10.3 per cent between the first six months of 2025 and the corresponding period of 2026.
Public expenditure should be subjected to scrutiny, but figures from official documents need to be presented with their appropriate accounting and administrative context.
The records are public and verifiable. The figures should therefore be interpreted based on the classifications contained in the official budget performance report.
