Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The Ebonyi State Government's failure to meet basic governance and fiscal transparency standards has cost the state a N37.8 billion performance-based grant under the World Bank-supported HOPE Governance Programme, a development civil society organisations have described as a catastrophic setback for a state already struggling with poverty, crumbling education infrastructure and a collapsing primary healthcare system. The Spokesperson for the Ebonyi Civil Society Coalition, Charles Otu, made the revelation on Friday, July 17, 2026, during an interview with Arise News, where he detailed how the state scored "weak, weak" across eight of nine governance indicators assessed by the World Bank, scoring only "moderate" in one area. The coalition's disclosure has ignited a fierce war of words with the state government, which has dismissed the allegations as politically motivated and misleading.
According to Otu, the World Bank assessed Ebonyi across nine key governance indicators, including public financial management, education governance, public healthcare governance, fiscal responsibility, and budget transparency. Across eight of those indicators, the state recorded the lowest possible rating. "In the key nine areas, Ebonyi scored weak, weak. And then it was only one area scored moderate," Otu stated. "For a state that is grappling with education, that is grappling with primary healthcare, what it means is that Ebonyi missed out on getting a total of N37.8 billion." The coalition warned that the lost funds would have been transformational, strengthening critical sectors including education and primary healthcare, and providing much-needed relief to a state identified by the National Bureau of Statistics as the poverty capital of Southern Nigeria and the third poorest in the country.
The HOPE Governance Programme, a $500 million World Bank initiative, provides performance-based incentive grants to states that demonstrate measurable improvements in governance, transparency, and institutional reforms. States that meet independently verified benchmarks in public financial management, basic education, and primary healthcare qualify for portions of the funding. However, Ebonyi, the only state in the South-East apart from Anambra, failed to meet the required performance targets and reform deadlines. The coalition lamented that "19 Nigerian states, which met the set targets of the apex financial institution, took part in sharing the whopping $27 million payout".
Beyond the lost grant, Otu levelled a damning indictment against the state's procurement practices, alleging that more than 95 per cent of government contracts are awarded to politically exposed persons rather than independent contractors. "Ebonyi is about the only state where politically exposed persons have more contracts than contractors that are unknown," Otu claimed. "We have done our research and we found out that more than 95% of the contractors are actually politically exposed persons." He alleged that many of the companies awarded multi-billion-naira projects were newly incorporated and lacked the track record expected for such contracts. "These individuals register companies as late as some of them this year, some last year," he said, citing a company registered in September 2023 that was awarded contracts running into billions of naira by February 2024.
Otu also questioned the implementation of a N6.02 billion school renovation programme across the state's 13 local government areas. "None of the projects have gotten to 50-60% completion," he alleged. "What you see are politically exposed people just taking these resources from the government." He accused the state government of failing to meet basic fiscal transparency obligations required under the World Bank's governance framework, pointing to the non-publication of budgets, medium-term expenditure frameworks, and fiscal documents. "In terms of budget performance, in 2023 particularly, Ebonyi never published its budget records. It never made it public. The medium-term expenditure framework was not published in 2024-2025," Otu stated.
The Ebonyi State Government has strongly rejected the allegations, describing them as a deliberate attempt by political opponents to misinform the public and undermine the achievements of Governor Francis Nwifuru's administration. The Special Assistant to the Governor on Documentation, Dr. Boniface Nwankwo, maintained that the administration's record under its People's Charter of Needs agenda demonstrates a commitment to inclusive development. The government has pointed to several federal and international grants secured by the state, including a ₦12 billion Productive Use of Energy grant, a $25 million Sustainable Power and Irrigation for Nigeria (SPIN) Programme intervention, an ₦8.1 billion African Development Bank Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) grant, and other federal projects. According to the government, the volume of grants and strategic investments secured under Governor Nwifuru's administration contradicts claims of poor governance.
However, the coalition has rejected the government's defence, insisting that the central issue remains governance performance under the World Bank's independently verified benchmarks. "The central issue remains whether governance performance in Ebonyi State met the World Bank's independently verified benchmarks. The answer is NO! And it remains NO!" the coalition said in a statement. It argued that the HOPE Governance Programme measures institutional reforms in public financial management, transparency, accountability, basic education, and primary healthcare through an independent verification process, stressing that eligibility is determined by governance performance rather than the number of projects executed or attracted.
The coalition has demanded that the state government publish its participation records in the HOPE Governance Programme, including the Independent Verification Assessment, indicators achieved and missed, and reforms being implemented ahead of the next assessment cycle. "The most constructive response at this stage is not to dismiss legitimate public concerns as politically motivated. Rather, it is to publish the evidence," the coalition said. The group has also challenged the Nwifuru administration to a public debate on the issue, maintaining that the conversation should focus on improving governance and strengthening Ebonyi's prospects of qualifying for future performance-based development financing.
The loss of the N37.8 billion grant has exposed deep-seated governance challenges in Ebonyi State, raising urgent questions about the state's fiscal transparency, procurement integrity, and institutional capacity. The coalition has called on the government to strengthen fiscal governance, improve procurement integrity, enhance budget execution, increase internally generated revenue, and expand public access to fiscal information. "Taken together, these independently verified findings suggest that Ebonyi State's principal fiscal challenge since 2023 is institutional weakness in public financial management rather than a conclusion of theft alone," the coalition stated. "International development partners increasingly reward measurable governance performance, institutional credibility, transparency, accountability, and demonstrated reform – not rhetoric."
The Ebonyi Civil Society Coalition's allegations, if substantiated, paint a troubling picture of governance failure in a state that can ill afford to lose development funding. As the coalition aptly put it, "It is a painful irony that Ebonyi, which remains the poverty capital of the entire Southern Nigeria and also the third poorest State in Nigeria, failed the leadership tests and criteria that could have enhanced growth in its struggling education, health, and other sectors." For the people of Ebonyi, the loss of N37.8 billion is not just a political controversy; it is a missed opportunity to improve schools, strengthen healthcare, and lift communities out of poverty. The government now faces a choice: defend its record with rhetoric or embrace transparency and reform to ensure that Ebonyi is not left behind in the next round of performance-based development financing.
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