KEY POINTS

• BudgIT’s Tracka platform identified N24 billion in unexecuted, abandoned, and fraudulent public projects.
• Benue, Ondo, Kwara, Akwa Ibom, and Sokoto recorded the highest rates of unexecuted projects.
• Imo, Lagos, and Kwara led on fraudulently delivered projects, totalling N8.61 billion.

Nigeria’s states collected billions in federal project allocations and delivered little to show for it, according to a new BudgIT accountability report that tracked N24 billion in public projects across the country and uncovered widespread evidence of contractors collecting funds for work they never started, abandoned midway, or deliberately misdelivered.

The Nigeria abandoned public projects findings come from Tracka’s 2024/2025 report titled “The People and Government Oversight: Connecting the Dots in Service Delivery,” unveiled in February 2026. The document covers three categories of failure: unexecuted projects, where authorities released funds but no work began; abandoned projects, where contractors started and stopped construction; and fraudulently delivered projects, where auditors recorded serious irregularities including fund diversion, double-counting from previous budget cycles, and substandard work.

Benue State led on non-execution, with 40 percent of tracked projects sitting idle despite disbursements. Ondo, Kwara, Akwa Ibom, and Sokoto rounded out the five worst performers in the same category. Together, those five states account for 28.8 percent of all unexecuted projects tracked, representing N2.19 billion of the N7.60 billion tied to projects that received funding but never moved.

Where officials abandoned projects and where investigators uncovered fraud

On abandoned projects, Taraba and Abia posted the worst figures, at 29.9 percent and 20 percent respectively, with Nasarawa, Adamawa, and Ogun completing the top five. Those five states collectively account for 97.5 percent of all abandoned projects tracked, representing N7.8 billion of the N8 billion disbursed for that category. Seventeen states recorded no abandoned projects during the same period.

The Nigeria abandoned public projects report flagged Imo State as the country’s worst performer on fraudulently delivered projects at 17.4 percent, followed by Lagos at 12.7 percent, Kwara at 11.8 percent, Abia at 10.7 percent, and Ogun at 8.3 percent. Together, those five states account for N8.61 billion of the N15.07 billion disbursed for projects in that category. The report described the fraud category as covering diversions, payments for work completed in earlier budget cycles without new implementation, and deliberately poor execution.

Civil society names the drivers

Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre Executive Director Auwal Musa said corruption sits at the root of the problem. He described a recurring pattern in which officials initiate projects, collect funds to begin work, and then walk away, sometimes diverting the money entirely.

“It is really unfortunate that billions of naira are wasted on these projects. Those sometimes are just political projects. They are not meant to improve the well-being of Nigerians,” Musa said. He also pointed to political transitions as a structural cause, with incoming administrations consistently choosing to launch new projects rather than complete what their predecessors started.

Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership Executive Director Debo Adeniran called for stricter enforcement from anti-graft agencies and argued that the absence of consequences has made project abandonment a tradition rather than an exception. “Because abandoning a project carries no consequences, local officials have made it almost a tradition to start new projects even when several others still need execution,” he said.