Akwa Ibom State recorded the lowest investment income among the five South-south states that published their 2025 audited financial statements, despite its extensive portfolio of quoted and unquoted investments, a PREMIUM TIMES review has found.
The state recorded N249.23 million as investment income in 2025, representing only 49.8 per cent of the N500 million it had budgeted to earn from its investments.
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Investment income is revenue earned by government from its investments, including dividends, interest and returns from its stakes in companies and other assets. They are usually reported as part of internally generated revenue (IGR), meaning the weak performance contributed to the state’s overall revenue mobilisation during the year.
The figure for Akwa Ibom is far below the investment income reported by other South-south states.
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Delta State recorded N18.29 billion, Edo N11.07 billion, Cross River N804.96 million and Bayelsa N651.79 million in investment income during the same period, according to their respective audited financial statements.
Rivers State did not publish its 2025 audited financial statements.
The figures raise questions about the financial returns being generated from Akwa Ibom’s extensive investment portfolio and why the state was able to realise only about half of its investment income target in 2025.
The state has, over the years, invested in several companies and public enterprises, including Ibom Air, one of Nigeria’s prominent state-owned commercial ventures.
Returns from state investments
The 2025 audited financial statements show that Akwa Ibom recorded N45.16 million in investment income from its unquoted investments.
Unquoted investments are the state’s ownership stakes in companies whose shares are not publicly traded on a stock exchange.
This represents an improvement after a two-year period during which the state reported no investment income from the portfolio.
The last time the state recorded investment income from the investments was in 2022, when it reported N110.5 million. The N45.16 million recorded in 2025 was less than half of the 2022 figure.
The audited financial statements list a range of investments under the Akwa Ibom State Investment Corporation (AKICORP).
They include Anchor Insurance Company, in which the state holds an 87.01 per cent stake; Greenwell Technologies Limited, 90 per cent; Ufani Ibom Processing Company Limited, 25 per cent; Tropicana Mall, 25 per cent; and Falcon Next Company, five per cent.
The state also holds 100 per cent stakes in several entities listed in the financial statements, including Ibom Mortgage Finance Bank Limited, Dakkada Global Oil Palm Limited, Ibom Paints Limited (formerly Peacock Paints Limited), Ibom Air, Ibom Icon, Akwa Ibom State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, Akwa Ibom Water Company, Akwa Ibom Power Company, Raffia City Hotels and Tours Limited (formerly Four Points by Sheraton), Dakkada Cottage Industries Limited, Quality Ceramics Limited, Fadama Micro Finance Bank Limited, Ibom Model Farms and Mimshac Digital Limited.
The breadth of the portfolio makes the relatively modest investment return particularly noteworthy, especially as the state has continued to receive substantial allocations from the Federation Account.
PREMIUM TIMES has reported that in the 38 months of the administration of Governor Umo Eno, Akwa Ibom State has received a revenue of N2.934 trillion with the largest chunk coming from the Federation Account.
Questions over revenue performance
The development follows concerns about the capacity of Akwa Ibom and other states to generate substantial revenue outside federal allocations.
Akwa Ibom was listed in late 2025 as the number one Nigerian state heavily dependent on Federation Account Allocation Committee revenue with a dependency ratio of 92.66 per cent, raising questions about the financial sustainability of its revenue model.
The state’s investment income performance in 2025 appears to reinforce the challenge of converting its substantial state-owned assets and investments into a key and consistent source of internally generated revenue.
Beyond the N45.16 million from unquoted investments, the state reported total investment income of N249.23 million in its 2025 audited financial statements.
The difference between the total investment income and the income from unquoted investments shows that other components of the state’s investment portfolio particularly those traded on the stock exchange accounted for the remaining N204.07 million.
However, the financial statements reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES do not, on their face, provide enough information to explain the specific sources of the entire N249.23 million or why the state fell short of its N500 million target.
Commissioner, AKICORP MD silent
PREMIUM TIMES sought clarification from the Akwa Ibom Commissioner for Finance, Emem Bob, on the state’s investment income performance.
The newspaper asked why the state realised only about half of its investment income target in 2025 and sought a breakdown of the sources of the N249.23 million reported as investment income.
Mr Bob did not respond to the enquiry sent via WhatsApp and text message. He also did not respond to calls to his known telephone line.
PREMIUM TIMES also contacted the Managing Director of AKICORP, Imo-Abasi Jacob, seeking clarification on the N45.16 million earned from the state’s unquoted investments.
Specifically, the newspaper asked Mr Jacob to identify the companies that generated the income and provide a breakdown of the returns from each investment.
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He did not respond to the messages sent via WhatsApp and text message and did not answer calls from our reporter.
The lack of response leaves unanswered questions about which of the state’s numerous investments generated the N45.16 million and what measures the government is taking to improve returns from its portfolio.
For a state with extensive commercial and equity interests, the relatively low investment income also raises questions about whether its investments are being managed primarily for commercial returns, strategic public-service objectives, or a combination of both.
Either way, the 2025 figures show that investment income remains a small contributor to Akwa Ibom’s internally generated revenue, despite the size of the assets held by the state.
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