BudgIT Raises Fresh Concerns Over Akwa Ibom’s ₦2.9trn Revenue, Budget Records

BudgIT has raised fresh concerns about fiscal transparency in Akwa Ibom State, saying the government’s latest budget implementation report does not provide sufficient information to show how public funds were spent.

The state government published its Q2 2026 Budget Implementation Report, but BudgIT said significant information gaps remain in the document.

The organisation said the report does not give citizens enough usable data to meaningfully scrutinise government expenditure.

The development comes against the backdrop of substantial revenue received by the administration of Governor Umo Eno.

Premium Times reported that the Eno administration had received more than ₦2.943 trillion over 38 months.

The newspaper’s reporting has also highlighted concerns over the availability of detailed capital expenditure information in the state’s fiscal documents.

BudgIT’s latest assessment adds another layer to the debate over how Akwa Ibom reports the use of public funds.

The organisation said the problem is not simply whether a state publishes a Budget Implementation Report.

According to BudgIT, the information contained in such a report must be complete, sufficiently detailed and usable if citizens are to determine how government revenue is being deployed.  

Akwa Ibom was among 34 Nigerian states that published Q2 2026 Budget Implementation Reports.

That figure represents 94.4 per cent compliance across the states, according to BudgIT.

However, the organisation said Akwa Ibom’s publication still fell short in terms of the information disclosed.

It said the report contained “significant data gaps” that restricted meaningful public scrutiny of government spending.

BudgIT said it had formally communicated its concerns to the Akwa Ibom State Government over the omissions but received no response.

The organisation also criticised the broader trend of publishing shorter fiscal documents.

Premium Times reported that the state stopped publishing detailed Budget Implementation Reports beginning with Q1 2025, replacing them with a three-page summary. The Q2 2026 document was subsequently expanded to five pages.

BudgIT nevertheless said the additional pages did not resolve the underlying information gaps.

The organisation’s criticism is centred on accountability and public access to financial information.

Citizens seeking to understand the state’s finances need more than headline revenue and expenditure figures. They need sufficient information to establish what was budgeted, what was received, what was spent and, where applicable, what projects or programmes received the funds.

The absence of such information makes independent verification more difficult.

At the national level, BudgIT recorded a decline in reporting compliance compared with the previous year.

Thirty-five states had published their Q2 reports in 2025, compared with 34 states in the corresponding period of 2026.

BudgIT described the year-on-year decline as a setback for fiscal transparency.