The National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS) has planned to spend N18.049 billion on its staff.

The agency, which is an examination body tasked with standardising and certifying studies in Arabic and Islamic education across Nigeria, was allocated N26,472,086,954 in the 2026 budget.

This means that the agency will spend 68 percent of its budget on staff alone.

A breakdown of the agency’s budget shows that N15,414,097,516 will be spent on salaries, and N2,635,755,653 on allowances and social contributions for the staff.

While a sum of N146,590,666 will go for allowances; N2,489,164,987 will be for social contributions.

Of the money for social contributions, N770,151,190 will be for the National Health Insurance Scheme and N1,540,302,379 for staff’s contributory pension – employer’s contribution and N178,711,418 for Employees’ Compensation Scheme (ECS).

The remaining 32 percent of the agency’s budget will see N318,023,420 spent on overhead costs and N8,104,210,365 on capital expenditure.

Earmarks N2.5bn for roads, solar streetlights, others

The board also earmarked over N2.5 billion for road construction, solar streetlights, food distribution and social media training. The projects are concentrated in Kano, Katsina, Kogi and Zamfara States.

A breakdown of the capital budget of the agency shows that it allocated N210 million for the construction of the Dantata Road–Saint Louis Road in Kano Central Senatorial District and N70 million for a 1.5km road in Ugwolawo, Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi State.

The Board also budgeted N84 million for the completion of factories in Kogi East Senatorial District and N70 million for the completion of a Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) outpost in Sharada, Kano.

In Zamfara State, the budget provides N28 million for the distribution of parboiled rice to beneficiaries in Anka/Talata Mafara Federal Constituency.

Another N70 million was earmarked for empowerment materials and cash grants for residents of Danbatta/Makoda Federal Constituency in Kano State.

The largest share of the off-mandate projects is allocated to the installation of solar-powered streetlights across several LGAs in Kano Central Senatorial District.

The budget allocates N175 million each for Fagge, Dala and Nasarawa LGAs; N140 million each for Tarauni, Kano Municipal, Gwale, Gezawa, Madobi, Warawa and Munjibir LGAs

The combined allocation for the solar streetlight projects exceeds N1.5 billion.

The board also allocated N75.6 million for training youths on social and electronic media, as well as N49 million for entrepreneurship training for youths and women on converting plastic waste into interlocking paving stones in Dutsin-Ma/Kurfi Federal Constituency of Katsina State.

Efforts to get a reaction from the commission were unsuccessful, as the top officials were not in the office during our correspondent’s visit to the commission’s headquarters along the Kaduna–Zaria Highway on Thursday.

Later, the commission’s Head of Information, Abdul Salam Ramalan, reached out to our correspondent and promised to respond after consulting with his principal, the head of the commission.

As of the time of filing this report, the commission had yet to respond to the inquiry on the subject matter.

However, a source within the commission, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said that most of the commission’s staff were engaged in invigilating the June–July external examinations nationwide.

“We have a large number of staff, but as you know, only the Administration and Human Resources Unit of the commission can provide you with the full list of our staff,” the source said.

A source at the agency, however, told our correspondent on condition of anonymity that it has about 6,000 staff members.

Why board should be scrapped – Experts

Speaking to Daily Trust, Dr Umar Yakubu, the Executive Director of the Centre for Fiscal Transparency and Public Integrity, said NBIAS is a problem with the Nigerian governance system, stating the agency’s existence was built on fault lines as its responsibilities can be carried out by more transparent agencies in the education sector.

He said, “First of all, we create agencies we don’t need. How can you create a whole agency just to conduct exams when you can easily give that role to WAEC, JAMB or other bodies that are conducting exams? So that’s the first problem. So, when you create an agency that is a duplication, there will also be questions in their activity and they won’t have work to do. So, all they can think about is how to siphon money, as you are aware that the corruption in that place is well documented in the sense that they over-employ people.

“90% of the staff don’t have work to do. The EFCC has been investigating them for years, but we have not heard much about it. There have been serious investigations by the EFCC about the corruption in that place and that is why they always do a lot of budgeting for procurement because that’s the avenue where they can collect kickbacks.

“JAMB has shown efficiency in doing that and they can change the name to just a body for conducting examinations so that everybody else can do examinations. That body will handle it. Sometimes I see the number of staff they have is more than the number of people that are conducting the exams. It’s a ridiculous governance arrangement.”

On his part, a public analyst and commentator, Lasisi Olagunju, said the personnel expenses of the NBAIS exceed the entire personnel budget of the National Examinations Council (NECO), the body that conducts nationwide examinations for millions of Nigerian children and more than four times the personnel allocation of the National Universities Commission (NUC), which regulates every university in the federation.

“It is almost ten times the personnel budget of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), the regulator of Nigeria’s polytechnics, monotechnics and technical colleges. It is nearly fourteen times that of the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE).”

“Before I am accused of peddling rumours and falsehoods, let me quickly exhibit what I saw in the budget, including the pages where I saw them: The National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS) has a personnel allocation of N18.05 billion (page 1601 of the 2026 budget). The National Examinations Council (NECO) has N15.53 billion (page 1593); Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), N6.364 billion (page 1593); National Universities Commission (NUC), N4.216 billion (page 1821); National Library of Nigeria, N2.360 billion (page 1593); National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), N1.843 billion (page 1601); and the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), N1.306 billion (page 1593). The Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) is responsible for developing the national curriculum used by virtually every school in Nigeria. It has a personnel budget of about N4 billion (page 1593). NBAIS has more than four times as much.

“How many workers does the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies have in its employment to justify a personnel bill of more than N18 billion? How large is its establishment? How many are academics, how many are administrators, and how many are support staff?”

Previous controversy

Daily Trust had reported that following the approval of the National Council on Education (NCE) at its 57th meeting in 2011, the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS) was recognised as a national examination and regulatory body that covers over 1,600 public and private schools and over 5,000 Tsangaya schools.

Since then, the board has carried out massive staff recruitments based on replacement, which actualised the employment of over 5,000 staff.

It was gathered that many of the staff worked without a schedule of duty.

A staff member said: “I started working at the board some years ago. At the beginning, I was excited because I had just got a job and I was even paid my arrears of about six months. I am really looking for another job because I am not learning anything here and I am not using the skills I acquired in school. I work in the headquarters and I come to work twice a week because there is nothing for me to do.”

A newly employed staff member of the agency stated: “I was posted to one of the state offices, but I was not given a workspace, nor was I given a work schedule. After I went to the office continuously for a week without a desk and no duties were assigned to me, I decided to keep away and do my other businesses because I started resenting wanting to come to the office with no job that I was being paid for”. (Daily Trust)

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