A new investigative report by BudgIT’s civic accountability platform, Tracka, has revealed that five Nigerian states are responsible for 97.5% of abandoned Federal Government projects, despite the projects having received full budgetary disbursement.
According to the findings, Taraba, Abia, Nasarawa, Adamawa, and Ogun states host the majority of these stalled initiatives, with the total value of abandoned projects across the five states estimated at N7.8 billion out of a nationwide total of N8 billion linked to fully-funded but unfinished work.
Taraba State topped the list, accounting for 29.90% of all abandoned projects tracked. It was followed by Abia (20%), Nasarawa (10.53%), Adamawa (7.48%), and Ogun (7.14%). The report noted that seventeen other states recorded zero abandoned projects during the monitoring period.
The disclosure underscores a critical failure in public project management, highlighting that the primary obstacle is not a lack of financial resources but significant lapses in accountability, oversight, and execution. BudgIT emphasized that the full disbursement of funds makes the high rate of abandonment particularly alarming, pointing to deep-seated issues in contractor performance and governmental supervision.
The Tracka report calls for urgent and strengthened monitoring mechanisms to ensure that public funds translate into completed projects that benefit citizens, stressing that without improved transparency and consequence management, the cycle of abandoned projects will continue to drain national resources.
