New youth project to check Akwa Ibom budgets for gender fairness

A new initiative led by young people will look at Akwa Ibom State’s budgets for three years. The goal is to see if public spending meets the needs of women, girls, and vulnerable groups. This comes amid ongoing worries about how transparent the state’s finances are.

The project is called Budget as Policy: Advancing Gender Justice through Fiscal Analysis. It will focus on spending in health, education, water, sanitation, and women’s economic empowerment.

Lucy Eyo is leading the project. She is a civil society advocate and development communication specialist. The initiative is supported by the Nigerian Youth Futures Fund.

A statement about the project said it will look at spending patterns, find funding gaps in important social areas, and check how much gender issues are considered in the state’s budget decisions.

The results will help civil society groups, the media, and government officials discuss how public money is spent.

“Budgets show a government’s real priorities,” Ms Eyo said.

“This project will show where public money is going, where the gaps are, and what must change so that women, girls, and communities benefit fairly from public spending.”

The project started on 16 October. An inception meeting took place with civil society representatives and media practitioners who will help with its execution. Participants learned about the project’s goals, activities, and expected results. They showed interest in supporting the initiative.

Government budgets affect whether health facilities get enough funding, schools have safe water and sanitation, and programs that help women and protect vulnerable groups get the resources they need.

This initiative comes at a time when there are questions about how transparent Akwa Ibom’s public finances are under Governor Umo Eno.

PREMIUM TIMES reported in July that the state government received at least N2.934 trillion in public revenue from May 2023 to June 2026. But the published financial records did not have detailed capital spending schedules needed to follow up on spending for projects and programs.

The newspaper also reported in September that the state’s second-quarter 2026 budget report did not give enough details for citizens to understand how public funds were spent.

These gaps in financial records make it hard to see if approved budgets lead to services and infrastructure for residents, especially women and children who need publicly funded health, education, water, and sanitation services.

PREMIUM TIMES has also reported that Akwa Ibom allocated N61.61 billion, which is 3.73 percent of its N1.65 trillion budget, to education in 2025. There was no clear public budget performance report for that year, making it hard to know how well the allocation was used.

The new initiative will focus on the state’s budgets from 2024 to 2026. Findings are expected to give civil society groups and journalists the evidence needed to question spending priorities, push for fairer resource allocation, and demand better accountability in essential public services.

The project aims to improve gender-responsive planning, budgeting, and spending in the social sector. It also seeks to provide a stronger evidence base for engaging with the state government.

But the impact of the initiative will partly depend on having detailed public financial records and the willingness of government institutions to act on evidence-based recommendations.