A new civic accountability report tracking federal government-funded projects under President Bola Tinubu administration has allegedly uncovered cases of abandoned, incomplete and fraudulent projects across Nigeria.
The 2024/2025 project tracking report released on Thursday by Tracka, BudgIT’s citizen-led monitoring platform, showed that 92 federal government-funded projects worth N15.07 billion were fraudulently delivered, while hundreds of others remain incomplete or have not commenced despite budgetary allocations.
According to the report, it tracked 2,760 projects across 28 states.
The results showed that just 1,438 of the monitored projects were finished, while 660 were still in progress, 471 were not carried out, and 99 had been abandoned.
The report further highlighted that the 92 fraudulently delivered projects were characterised by fund diversion, relocation of projects to unintended locations, payments for projects already executed in previous budget cycles, partial completion, or substandard execution.
Imo, Lagos, Kwara, Abia, and Ogun were found to have the largest concentration of these fraudulent projects by Tracka.
According to the research, N8.61 billion of the N15.07 billion in fraudulently delivered projects, or 57.1 percent of all projects, are situated in the five states.
According to Tracka, it tracked strategic infrastructure projects in areas that are important to the country’s growth, such as dams, primary healthcare facilities, and federal operations in the Niger Delta.
The paper claims that the results showed significant implementation gaps, especially in dam-related projects that are essential for electricity generation, flood management, and irrigation.
According to the research, the platform tracked 16 dam projects worth N432 million across 13 states in 2024 as a result of the country’s recurring grid breakdowns. At the time of the assessment, none of the projects had been finished. Despite proof of financing approvals, six had not started, four had been abandoned, and six were making poor progress.
In terms of primary healthcare infrastructure, Tracka monitored 47 revitalised primary healthcare facilities in 25 states and discovered that only 26 of them had equipment or infrastructure enhancements that were readily apparent.
The report further revealed that one site had been totally abandoned, twelve were undergoing renovations, and eight, despite being designated as revitalised, showed no signs of intervention.
According to the research, because of a lack of staff, subpar equipment, and lax sanitary regulations, people in many impacted communities still have to travel great distances for medical care.
According to the fraudulent projects report, the platform tracked 48 federally sponsored projects in the states of Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta, and Rivers in the Niger Delta. Of these, 29 projects were finished and provided quantifiable benefits to communities, while 13 had not yet started, four were in progress, and two, while having verified funding, could not be traced, according to Tracka.
However, 15 success cases where public engagement fuelled project delivery were recognised in the report. These include projects to revitalise Kaida Sabo Primary Healthcare Center, renovate Nawairudeen Primary School in Plateau State, finish a healthcare facility in Ikirun that had been stalled, empower people with disabilities in Katsina, control erosion in Rivers State, and drill boreholes in Akwa Ibom.
Joshua Osiyemi the head of Tracka speaking on the fraudulent projects report, said there is a need for citizen oversight to ensure that public funds deliver real impact. “If just 5 per cent of Nigerians engage in oversight, monitoring could reach 50 per cent, significantly reducing opportunities for corruption and greatly improving service delivery and quality of life across communities,” he said
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