PUBLIC FINANCE UTILIZATION, INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT DELIVERY AND SOCIOECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA, 2015-2023

The central problem addressed in this study is that the substantial financial resources ostensibly invested in infrastructure delivery in Rivers State have not translated into commensurate economic investment capable of fostering socio-economic development through poverty reduction, employment generation, and social equality. The study was anchored on the resource curse theory and adopted a descriptive research design. Both quantitative and qualitative data were drawn from primary and secondary sources and analysed using critical content analysis. The findings revealed, among other things, that despite the comparatively sizeable public revenue accruing to Rivers State, these resources have not been effectively utilised to drive robust, strategic, and coordinated infrastructure development. This deficiency is largely attributable to the absence of a coherent infrastructure development policy and roadmap, resulting in a distorted, disjointed, and poorly coordinated pattern of infrastructure project delivery. Such an approach has been incapable of attracting sustainable economic investment, enhancing agricultural productivity, stimulating industrialisation, or ultimately reducing the state’s human misery index. These outcomes reflect manifestations of weak political leadership, which continues to reinforce the resource curse phenomenon in Rivers State. Based on the findings, the study recommends, among others, the immediate reactivation and effective implementation of the 2009/2019 Infrastructure Development Policy and Roadmap of Rivers State; increased and better-targeted investment in socio-economic infrastructure; the adoption of geo-spatially informed and coordinated multi-sectoral infrastructure planning; and enhanced citizen engagement in infrastructure governance, alongside sustained demands for transparency and accountability from political leadership, as critical pathways to the state’s socio-economic development.