₦1 Trillion and Counting: Will Imo’s 2026 Budget Become Development or Just Another Number?

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Blessing Iriaka et Chimezie Ebosie during an interview session. 


By Blessing Iriaka 


A budget can look impressive on paper. Billions allocated to roads. Billions for power. Billions for education. Billions for health and other public services. 

 

But the real question is not how much government plans to spend. It is what citizens will actually see at the end of the year. 

 

That question became particularly important to me while examining Imo State's 2026 budget, estimated at more than ₦1 trillion, following concerns about the implementation of the state's 2025 budget. 

 

During a conversation with Chimezie Ebosie, Imo State Officer of BudgIT Foundation, on my programme, Eye on Corruption, we examined what the 2025 experience could teach citizens about the year ahead. 

 

The size of Imo's 2026 budget is significant. It is reportedly the largest budget in the state's history, with increased revenue projections partly linked to recent tax reforms. 

 

But a larger budget automatically creates a larger question: Can the state generate the projected revenue and, more importantly, translate that money into visible improvements in people's lives? This is where budget accountability becomes important. 

 

The budget is not development. A budget is a plan for development. The development happens when the money is actually released, projects are implemented, services are delivered, and citizens can see where public resources are going. 

 

What Happened to the 2025 Budget? 

One of the concerns raised during my conversation with Ebosie was the reported gap between what was budgeted in 2025 and what was actually implemented. 

 

This is a problem that extends beyond Imo State. Across Nigeria, citizens often hear impressive budget figures at the beginning of a fiscal year, only to discover later that many projects were delayed, abandoned, underfunded or never started. 

 

That raises an uncomfortable question: 

Are budgets designed primarily to be implemented, or are some becoming documents produced to satisfy a constitutional and administrative requirement? 

 

For Imo, the 2026 budget provides an opportunity to answer that question differently. 

 

The allocation also raises questions about priorities. 

The Ministry of Works and Infrastructure Development received one of the largest allocations, with the power sector also receiving significant attention. Infrastructure is undoubtedly important. Roads, electricity, and other physical infrastructure affect businesses, education, healthcare, and everyday life. 

 

But another figure caught my attention: Education received only about 5% of the total budget. 

That raises an important development question. Can a state achieve sustainable development by investing heavily in physical infrastructure while comparatively underinvesting in the people who will use, maintain and drive that infrastructure? 

 

As Ebosie pointed out during our conversation, infrastructure matters, but development without human capital is incomplete. 

 

What Should Imo Citizens Watch in 2026? 

 

Perhaps the most important lesson from the 2025 experience is that citizens should not wait until the end of the year before asking questions. 

 

If a government allocates money for a road, citizens should be able to ask: 

Where is the road? 

If money is allocated for a school: 

Was the school renovated or equipped? 

If funds are allocated for electricity: 

What project was delivered, where is it located, and who benefited? 

And if billions are projected as government revenue: 

How much was actually generated? 

These are not unreasonable questions. 

They are part of responsible citizenship. 

A Budget Should Be More Than Numbers 

 

The 2026 budget gives Imo State an opportunity to demonstrate what effective public spending can look like. But citizens, civil society organisations, journalists and community groups also have a role to play. 

 

We cannot hold government accountable for what we do not monitor. 

The real test of Imo's ₦1 trillion-plus budget will not be the size of the document presented to the public. It will be the roads completed, the schools improved, the electricity projects delivered, the health services strengthened, and the opportunities created. 

 

By the end of 2026, citizens should be able to look beyond the figures and point to what those figures changed. That, ultimately, is what makes a budget meaningful. 


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