Three states in South-east Nigeria (a five-state region in the country's predominantly Igbo-speaking southeast) — Enugu, Abia, and Ebonyi — have allocated the largest shares of their 2026 budgets to education, though only Enugu meets the 26 per cent benchmark set by Nigeria's National Policy on Education and endorsed by UNESCO. Enugu leads with N521.87 billion, or 32.21 per cent of its total budget, followed by Abia at 19.93 per cent and Ebonyi at 19.86 per cent, while Anambra and Imo lag significantly behind, with Imo committing just 5.89 per cent of its N1.47 trillion budget to the sector. However, past performance raises doubts about full implementation: in 2025, no state spent more than 73 per cent of its education allocation, highlighting a persistent gap between budgeted commitments and actual expenditure.