The National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children’s Education (NCAOOSCE) has said the road construction and other projects in its 2026 budget that appear outside its statutory mandate were inserted by the National Assembly as constituency projects for the commission to implement.

The commission made the clarification in a statement issued Tuesday in Abuja by the Special Adviser on Media and Communications to the Executive Secretary, Nura Muhammad.

The explanation follows reports that the commission earmarked N8.4 billion for road construction in the 2026 budget despite its core responsibility of tackling the out-of-school children crisis through the integration of formal, Qur’anic and vocational education.

The 2026 Appropriation Act allocated N22.82 billion to the commission, including N21.68 billion for capital expenditure and N1.14 billion for recurrent expenditure. The budget also contains projects such as the procurement of ambulances and medical equipment, as well as the installation of solar power facilities.

According to the commission, the projects are constituency interventions assigned to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) through the federal budget for execution.

 “The Commission wishes to clarify that these projects are National Assembly constituency projects incorporated into the 2026 Appropriation Act for implementation through the Commission. This is in line with the long-standing budgetary practice under which constituency projects are assigned to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for execution through the Appropriation Act,” the statement said.

The commission added that all projects captured in the Appropriation Act would be implemented in line with existing laws, financial regulations and procurement procedures.

It maintained that the inclusion of the projects does not change its statutory mandate, which remains focused on reforming the Almajiri education system and reducing the number of out-of-school children across Nigeria.

Muhammad said the commission has so far identified and profiled more than 700,000 out-of-school children nationwide and established 119 learning centres. He added that the agency continues to carry out community mobilisation and ward-level advocacy while implementing the National Policy on Almajiri.

The commission also reaffirmed its commitment to expanding access to education for vulnerable children and acknowledged the support of the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, and other stakeholders.