Activist sues for gender responsive budgeting in Akwa Ibom

A civil society advocate and communication specialist in Akwa Ibom State, Lucy Eyo, has urged the state government to prioritise gender-responsive budgeting in every fiscal year.

She said the approach would help address the peculiar and pressing needs of women, girls and other vulnerable groups across the health and education sectors.

Eyo made the appeal on Friday in Uyo while flagging off a project titled “Budgets as Policy: Advancing Gender Justice through Fiscal Analysis,” supported by the Nigerian Youth Futures Fund (NYFF).

She observed that a review of Akwa Ibom State’s budgets from 2023 to 2025 showed a persistent pattern of gender-blind fiscal planning, which she said had undermined women’s and girls’ access to healthcare and education services.

She said, “In 2023, the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare was allocated ₦4.16 billion, yet only 36 per cent, approximately ₦1.5 billion, was actually spent, exposing a systemic gap between budgetary commitment and implementation. Critical gender-based violence (GBV) interventions, including trauma centres, rape referral centres and shelters, received minimal capital funding.

“On education, although the state has nominally increased education budgets over the years, dedicated funding for girls’ programmes remains absent. At the secondary school level, at least 14,200 of the 15,200 out-of-school children are girls, a crisis that budget lines do not adequately address.

“The 2025 revised budget of ₦1.65 trillion prioritises infrastructure and capital expenditure, with no publicly disaggregated gender markers in health or education spending, making it impossible to track whether women and girls are benefiting equitably.

“These gaps make a compelling case for a gender-responsive budget analysis and an evidence-based policy brief to drive accountability and advocacy.”

Speaking on the project, Eyo said the exercise would examine sectoral allocations and expenditure priorities, track spending trends, identify funding gaps in critical social sectors and assess the extent to which gender considerations were reflected in the state’s budgeting process.

“The analysis will focus particularly on women’s empowerment, education, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and healthcare,” she said.

Eyo added that the findings would be shared with government stakeholders, civil society organisations, media practitioners and other relevant partners to promote evidence-based dialogue on public financial management.

Activist sues for gender responsive budgeting in Akwa Ibom