The Ebonyi Civil Society Coalition has alleged that Ebonyi State lost access to a N37.8 billion World Bank governance grant after failing key governance performance assessments, while claiming that more than 95 per cent of government contracts in the state are awarded to politically exposed persons rather than independent contractors.
The coalition’s spokesperson, Charles Otu, made the allegations during an interview on Friday, 17 July, 2026, where he attributed the loss of the grant to the state’s poor performance in governance, fiscal responsibility, budget transparency, education and healthcare management.
According to Otu, the World Bank assessed Ebonyi State across nine governance indicators, including public financial management, education governance, public healthcare governance and fiscal responsibility.
He alleged that the state recorded “weak” ratings in almost all the assessed areas, with only one indicator receiving a moderate score.
“In the key nine areas, Ebonyi scored weak in virtually all of them, with only one area rated moderate. For a state grappling with challenges in education and primary healthcare, it means the state missed out on about N37.8 billion that could have supported critical sectors,” he said.
Otu argued that the lost funding would have significantly strengthened education and primary healthcare delivery across the state.
He further accused the state government of allowing politically exposed persons to dominate the procurement process, alleging that over 95 per cent of government contracts are awarded to individuals with political affiliations.
“Ebonyi is about the only state where politically exposed persons have more contracts than independent contractors. Our research shows that more than 95 per cent of contractors handling government projects are politically exposed persons,” he alleged.
According to him, some of the companies awarded multi-billion-naira contracts were recently incorporated and lacked the experience expected for projects of such magnitude.
He cited an example of a company allegedly registered in September 2023 but awarded contracts worth billions of naira barely five months later.
The civil society spokesperson also questioned the implementation of the state’s N6.02 billion school renovation programme, alleging that projects across the 13 local government areas remain far from completion.
He claimed that many of the projects have yet to attain 50 to 60 per cent completion despite the huge budgetary allocation.
Otu further accused the government of failing to meet fiscal transparency standards required under the World Bank’s governance framework.
He alleged that key financial documents, including annual budgets, budget performance reports and Medium-Term Expenditure Frameworks, were not published within the required periods, thereby affecting the state’s performance assessment.
While acknowledging what he described as achievements by Governor Francis Nwifuru’s administration in overseas scholarship programmes, Otu maintained that greater attention should be given to strengthening primary and secondary education infrastructure.
He argued that the condition of schools across the state’s 13 local government areas does not justify the level of expenditure claimed by the government over the past three years.
Describing budget implementation under the current administration as poor, Otu said the execution of government budgets had been “lacklustre.”
He also dismissed allegations that the Ebonyi Civil Society Coalition is politically sponsored, insisting that much of the information presented by the group was obtained from official government sources.
Otu called on the Ebonyi State Government to engage constructively with the issues raised and implement necessary reforms ahead of future World Bank assessment cycles.
