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Indices / Africa Budget Promise Index
Index

Africa budget scores: education and health spending against targets

The Africa Budget Promise Index scores how closely each government's approved budget matches two published spending targets, one for education and one for health. It uses only budget figures already published on this site.

4 of 54 countries are scored. South Africa is highest at 88.8 out of 100, and Nigeria is lowest at 26.0. A score of 100 means both targets are met or exceeded.

  • Edition: 10 Oct 2026, the latest retrieval date among the budget inputs.
  • Refresh: Each budget release. Next update due by 8 Apr 2027.
  • Coverage: 4 scored, 50 not yet covered.

Budget promise score by country

Budget promise score by countryHorizontal bars, highest to lowest, of the score out of 100: South Africa 88.8, Ghana 77.8, Kenya 58.4, Nigeria 26.0.South Africa88.8Ghana77.8Kenya58.4Nigeria26.00100 = every target met

Education and health share of the budget against each target

Education and health share of the budget against each targetBars show each country's share of the budget. South Africa: education 19.3%, health 11.6%; Ghana: education 13.8%, health 9.6%; Kenya: education 14.0%, health 3.6%; Nigeria: education 3.7%, health 4.1%.South AfricaEducation19.3%Health11.6%GhanaEducation13.8%Health9.6%KenyaEducation14.0%Health3.6%NigeriaEducation3.7%Health4.1%

Shaded band: Education 2030 benchmark, 15% to 20% of the budget. Mark: Abuja Declaration health target, 15% of the budget.

Inputs and sources

Budget promise score and the inputs behind it, by country
RankCountryScoreEducation shareEducation scoreHealth shareHealth scoreWhat the budget coversSource
1South Africa88.819.3% (2026/27)100.011.6% (2026/27)77.5Consolidated government, including the nine provinces.South Africa budget page
2Ghana77.813.8% (2026)91.79.6% (2026)63.9Central government.Ghana budget page
3Kenya58.414.0% (2026/27)93.13.6% (2026/27, partial)23.8National government only. Counties deliver most primary health care.Kenya budget page
4Nigeria26.03.7% (2026)25.04.1% (2026)27.0Federal government only. States and local governments fund much of primary education and primary health care.Nigeria budget page

Targets: UNESCO, Education 2030 Framework for Action and WHO, The Abuja Declaration: ten years on. Each country's budget page links to the finance ministry documents the shares come from. Where the official documents cover only part of a sector, the share is marked partial and is a minimum.

Not yet covered

These countries have no budget data on this site yet, so they have no score. We do not estimate a score for them.

How the index is calculated

Education score = education share of the approved budget ÷ 15%, as a percent, capped at 100.
Health score = health share of the approved budget ÷ 15%, as a percent, capped at 100.
Index = the average of the education score and the health score.

Shares are the latest year for which the official documents state a sector total, taken from the approved budget. The education benchmark is a range, and we score against the lower end, so reaching 15% counts as a full score. Each country's fiscal year and the sector definition it uses are on its budget page and in our methods.

The index measures what a budget allocates. It does not measure whether the money was released, spent well or reached people, and it does not compare countries whose budgets cover different levels of government. Federal, national and consolidated budgets are labelled in the table, and a country where states or counties fund much of the service is not directly comparable with one where the central budget does.

Download this index: CSV or open JSON. Both are free to use under CC BY 4.0, and the licence and citation travel with each file.

Cite this

PollsAfrica (2026). Africa Budget Promise Index. Retrieved 10 Oct 2026 from https://pollsafrica.com/indices/africa-budget-promise-index