THE Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) will spend 96 percent of its 2026 budget on personnel despite the rising security challenges across the nation.
According to the detailed 2026 budget seen by Economy Post, the NSCDC has a total budget of N244.259 billion in 2026, but earmarked N234.579 billion for personnel cost, making the security agency weaker in fighting insecurity this year.
The NSCDC is a para-military agency of Nigeria’s government, commissioned to provide measures against threat and any form of attack or disaster against the nation and its citizenry. The corps is statutorily empowered by the Act No. 2 of 2003 and amended by Act 6 of 2007.
The Civil Defence, as it is popularly called, is tasked with the responsibility of protecting lives and properties in partnership with the Nigeria Police Force, as well as safeguarding critical national infrastructure. The NSCDC also plays a vital role in crisis management, disaster response, and security enforcement. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently ordered the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun, to withdraw police officers protecting certain categories of Very Important Persons (VIPs). Currently, several VIPs have turned to the NSCDC for protection.
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The nation is currently experiencing its worst security crisis in decades, with kidnapping and terrorism on the rise. However, rather than deploy its lean resources to acquiring security equipment, the Civil Defence is spending nearly all of its budget for 2026 on personnel.
In its budget breakdown section, it was observed that most of its line items focus on solar installation, construction of internal access road, equipment of mechanical workshop, construction work at the clinic annex of NSCDC national headquarters (NHQ), construction of state command heaquarters in Borno, Lagos, Bauchi and Kaduna.
Others are construction of admin block at Nasarawa College, construction of conference hall at Nasarawa College, development of ICT infrastructure, construction of pension and veteran office block, construction and furnishing of 500-seat capacity auditorium at Katsina College, construction of seminar and lecture hall at College of Security Management Abeokuta, and the contruction of parade ground at civil defence training school at Udege, Nasarawa State.
Virtually all the line items in the 2026 budget are meant to construct or rehabilitate offices or halls, neglecting the basic reasons why the agency was set up in the first place.
In April 2025 alone, the nation reported 570 deaths and 278 kidnappings. Nigeria’s kidnap for ransom crisis generated at least N2.57 billion for criminal groups between July 2024 and June 2025, according to a report by SBM Intelligence. The report entitled, ‘The Year Ahead at an Inflexion Point,’ analysed economic and political developments that shaped Africa in 2025.
It found that kidnappers in Nigeria demanded an estimated N48 billion during the 12-month period but received N2.57 billion. According to the report, abductions evolved into a structured, profit-driven industry amid worsening insecurity across the country.
The nation’s oil has continued to leak to thieves due to poor security – a role the Civil Defence should naturally perform. The Senate, through its Ad Hoc Committee on the Incessant and Nefarious Acts of Crude Oil Theft in the Niger Delta and the Actors, said in November 2025 that Nigeria lost an estimated $300 billion in revenue from natural resources between 2015 and 2025.
The 23-member committee, which was investigating repeated sabotage of oil installations and crude oil theft in the Niger Delta, identified systemic irregularities, poor measurement standards, and weak enforcement in the oil and gas sector, resulting in unaccounted crude oil sales.
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The 40-page interim report recommended that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) strictly enforce internationally accepted crude oil measurement standards at all production sites and export terminals.
A financial analyst, Ms Ebiere Oneya, berated the Civil Defence or the NSCDC for crafting a poor budget despite the rising insecurity in the country, stressing that the agency must be “queried by its superior such as the Ministry of Interior.”
She urged the agency and others in the nation to engage the services of experts in budget preparation and crafting. Messages sent to a spokesperson of the agency were not replied.
