As Nigerians continue to battle collapsed highways, endless potholes and nightmarish journeys on major federal roads, details emerging from the 2026 budget showing that the Federal Ministry of Works plans to spend over ₦500 million on hairdressing, make-up training and other empowerment projects have sparked disbelief and growing public anger.
The proposals are contained in the 2026 Appropriation Bill uploaded on the Budget Office website and accessed on Thursday.
For many commuters, commercial drivers and traders who spend days stranded on failed roads, the revelations reopen painful questions about government priorities at a time when transportation has become one of the biggest daily risks to life and livelihood.
Budget documents show that under item code ERGP 12234747, the ministry proposed ₦35 million for the supply of grinding machines to women in Ndokwa/Ukwani Federal Constituency in Delta State.
Another ₦35 million was earmarked for training and empowering women in hairdressing, make-up and soap making in Mikang/Shandam/Qua’an Pan Federal Constituency of Plateau State.
In the North-East, the ministry proposed ₦70 million for the training and empowerment of youths, women and seven retirees in different skills, including the provision of trade equipment in Inyamaltu/Deba area of Gombe State.
The budget also includes ₦70 million for the supply of mini pick-up vans, mini shuttle buses and motorcycles to constituents in Abakaliki Federal Constituency of Ebonyi State.
In addition, funds were proposed for training, sensitisation, advocacy and empowerment of youths against drug abuse in Zamfara State, alongside several similar constituency-based projects scattered across geopolitical zones.
While empowerment programmes are not unusual in government budgets, their inclusion under the Federal Ministry of Works — the agency directly responsible for the nation’s collapsing highways — has raised eyebrows.
Across Nigeria, major roads such as the East-West Road, Benin-Asaba Expressway, Onitsha-Owerri Road, Lokoja-Abuja Highway and long stretches of the Enugu-Port Harcourt corridor remain scenes of breakdowns, robberies, accidents and deaths.
For families forced to sleep in broken-down vehicles, traders whose goods rot in traffic, and communities cut off by washed-away roads, the proposals feel disconnected from lived reality.
The proposed expenditures have now triggered renewed scrutiny over what Nigerians see as misplaced priorities — and whether a ministry meant to fix the nation’s arteries should be budgeting for empowerment projects while the roads continue to bleed.
