By BASSEY BENSON

Akwa Ibom’s Vast Investment Portfolio Yields Just ₦249m as State Struggles to Convert Assets Into Revenue

AKWA Ibom State’s extensive portfolio of commercial and equity investments generated only ₦249.23 million in investment income in 2025, according to the state’s audited financial statements.

The figure represents just 49.8 per cent of the ₦500 million the state had projected to earn from its investments during the year.

The performance places Akwa Ibom at the bottom of the five South-south states that published their 2025 audited financial statements.

By comparison, Delta State reported ₦18.29 billion in investment income. Edo recorded ₦11.07 billion, while Cross River and Bayelsa reported ₦804.96 million and ₦651.79 million, respectively.

Rivers State did not publish its 2025 audited financial statements and, therefore, could not be included in the comparison.

A Large Portfolio, Modest Returns

Investment income represents money earned by government from assets such as shares, equity holdings, interest-bearing investments and other financial interests.

For Akwa Ibom, the relatively small return becomes notable because the state has accumulated interests in a wide range of companies and public enterprises.

The audited accounts list several investments held through the Akwa Ibom State Investment Corporation, AKICORP.

They include an 87.01 per cent stake in Anchor Insurance Company, a 90 per cent stake in Greenwell Technologies Limited, 25 per cent in Ufani Ibom Processing Company Limited, 25 per cent in Tropicana Mall and five per cent in Falcon Next Company.

The state also holds 100 per cent interests in several entities.

These include Ibom Air, Ibom Mortgage Finance Bank Limited, Dakkada Global Oil Palm Limited, Ibom Paints Limited, Ibom Icon, Akwa Ibom Power Company, Akwa Ibom Water Company, Raffia City Hotels and Tours Limited, Dakkada Cottage Industries Limited, Quality Ceramics Limited, Fadama Micro Finance Bank Limited, Ibom Model Farms and Mimshac Digital Limited, among others.

The portfolio therefore spans aviation, banking, insurance, manufacturing, agriculture, hospitality, power, water and other sectors.

Yet the income generated from the portfolio remained comparatively small.

That disparity raises an important fiscal question: how effectively are the state’s commercial assets being converted into measurable financial returns?

Unquoted Investments Show Weak Recovery

The audited accounts provide a more specific picture of the returns from unquoted investments.

Akwa Ibom reported ₦45.16 million in investment income from this category in 2025.

The figure marks a return after two consecutive years in which the state reported no investment income from the portfolio.

However, the 2025 result remained below the ₦110.5 million recorded in 2022, the last year before the two-year period of zero reported income.

In other words, the state recovered some income from its unquoted investments but still earned less than half of the amount recorded three years earlier.

The financial statements do not identify, in sufficient detail, which individual companies generated the ₦45.16 million.

That makes it difficult from the published accounts alone to assess which investments are performing well, which are underperforming and which may require restructuring or additional capital.

Where Did the Remaining ₦204 Million Come From?

The ₦45.16 million from unquoted investments accounts for only part of the state’s total investment income.

With total investment income standing at ₦249.23 million, approximately ₦204.07 million came from other components of the state’s investment portfolio.

The audited statements indicate that investments traded on the stock exchange and other investment categories contributed to the balance.

However, the accounts, on their face, do not provide enough information to establish a detailed source-by-source breakdown of the entire ₦249.23 million.

That gap matters because the state had set a ₦500 million investment-income target.

Without a detailed breakdown, it is difficult to determine whether the shortfall resulted from weak dividend payments, poor performance of particular holdings, market conditions, delayed returns, non-performing investments or other factors.

It also limits public understanding of how AKICORP manages the portfolio.

Revenue Dependence Adds Pressure

The investment-income figures come against the backdrop of Akwa Ibom’s wider revenue structure.

During the 38 months of Governor Umo Eno’s administration, the state received ₦2.934 trillion in revenue, with the Federation Account providing the largest share.

Akwa Ibom was also identified in late 2025 as the Nigerian state with the highest dependence on Federation Account Allocation Committee revenue, with a reported dependency ratio of 92.66 per cent.

The combination creates a broader fiscal concern.

If a state has substantial commercial holdings but derives only modest income from them, while also depending heavily on federal allocations, the capacity of those assets to strengthen fiscal independence becomes an important policy issue.

This does not necessarily mean that every state-owned company should be judged solely by the dividends or income it generates.

Some government-owned entities may exist partly to provide strategic infrastructure, employment, social services or broader economic benefits.

Ibom Air, for instance, may have objectives beyond direct dividend generation.

Nevertheless, where public funds support commercial entities, the financial performance of those entities remains relevant to questions about efficiency, sustainability and accountability.

Officials Leave Questions Unanswered

To understand the reasons behind the investment-income shortfall, enquiries were directed to the state government.

The Commissioner for Finance, Emem Bob, was asked why the state generated only about half of its ₦500 million investment-income target.

He was also asked for a breakdown of the sources of the ₦249.23 million recorded during the year.

He did not respond to the enquiries sent through WhatsApp and text messages and did not answer calls to his known telephone line.

The Managing Director of AKICORP, Imo-Abasi Jacob, was similarly contacted.

He was asked to identify the companies that generated the ₦45.16 million earned from unquoted investments and provide the returns attributed to each investment.

He did not respond to the messages and did not answer calls.

The absence of responses means several questions remain unresolved.

The Accountability Question

Akwa Ibom’s 2025 investment figures do not, by themselves, establish mismanagement or wrongdoing.

They do, however, reveal a significant gap between the breadth of the state’s investment portfolio and the income disclosed from those holdings.

The central issue is therefore not simply how much money the state earned in 2025.

It is also whether the government has a clear strategy for measuring the financial and strategic performance of its investments.

For a state with interests across banking, aviation, insurance, agriculture, manufacturing, hospitality and infrastructure, stronger disclosure could help citizens understand which assets are profitable, which are strategic and which require intervention.

It could also help answer a larger question about Akwa Ibom’s fiscal future.

As federal allocations remain a major pillar of state finances, the ability to make existing assets productive could become increasingly important.

For now, the 2025 accounts show that investment income remains a relatively small component of Akwa Ibom’s revenue, despite the scale of the assets held by the state.