Abia State Governor Alex Otti has pledged a more robust economic outlook for the state in 2026, revealing plans to start paying off long-standing gratuity debts owed to retirees since the early 2000s.
Speaking during his New Year address on Thursday, themed **“Rising to the Opportunities and Challenges of the New Year,”** the governor assessed his administration’s achievements in 2025 and reflected on its 31 months in office.
According to Otti, “A special day like this offers an excellent opportunity to reiterate our resolve to continue to place the rapid development of our state above every other consideration, because for us, it will always be Abia first. Mistakes may have been made in times past, but the New Year is an invitation to begin again, this time on a clean slate. In the New Year, we shall consolidate the gains of the last 31 months to further expand our system of advantages. 2026 will also see new levels of commitment to the development of critical transport infrastructure.”
He explained that the new year would bring policies targeted at stimulating investment, generating employment, and growing the state’s GDP by removing production obstacles that raise costs. As he put it, “The New Year holds a lot in store for millions of hardworking men and women, aimed at encouraging investment in productive assets, creating jobs, and increasing our GDP by consistently cutting out the bottlenecks that add to production costs.”
Looking ahead to workforce development, the governor disclosed that “In 2026, we shall commit about N5bn to manpower training and development because, for us, the only guarantee of the sustainability of any public sector reform is the readiness of institutions to effectively interpret and execute their service mandates.” He added that reforms would also affect staff postings, noting that “individuals shall only be posted to offices where they can function, create value, and improve general service performance.”
On housing, Otti said residents would soon witness outcomes from collaborations with federal agencies and private developers, stating, “From this January, Abians shall begin to see the manifestations of our engagements with federal government institutions and leading private sector players in the real estate sector with respect to expanding housing supply for tens of thousands of families and businesses in the state.” He clarified that the administration would first focus on affordable housing to attract institutional investors into higher-end property development.
Education remains a core priority, with the governor reiterating that “In the New Year, we shall continue our broad governance efforts at transforming primary and secondary education into participatory hubs where pupils’ interactions and teacher-guided insights direct learning.” He further announced plans to revive science and technical schools, explaining that “Part of our priorities for the basic and post-basic education subsector in 2026 is to restore and upgrade our science and technical secondary schools into centres of excellence.”
To strengthen discipline in schools, Otti warned that “We are going to introduce a stricter supervision framework starting from this January; indiscipline, truancy, and any form of negligence shall have no place in our schools.” He also confirmed sustained funding for education, adding, “As we did in the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years, we have also committed 20 per cent of our entire budgetary outlay to the education sector in 2026. Our objective is to consolidate the gains we have made in the last two and a half years in repositioning the education sector for relevance in the new age.”
Agriculture, he said, would enjoy increased focus following the completion of a comprehensive farmers’ database designed to link farmers with needed resources through technology. He also highlighted social interventions, noting, “In the New Year, generous provisions have been made to provide social and economic support to our women and mothers through relevant organs of government.” Youth empowerment programmes would likewise continue to enhance competitiveness in today’s demanding environment.
The governor emphasized inclusivity, stating that persons living with disabilities would receive deliberate consideration in policies, projects, and welfare schemes. Addressing senior citizens, he announced, “As part of our commitment to advancing the welfare of our senior citizens, I am glad to announce that in the New Year, the state government shall begin offsetting accumulated gratuity arrears dating back to the early 2000s.”
Otti described 2026 as pivotal to Nigeria’s democratic process, urging eligible voters to participate in the Continuous Voter Registration exercise by INEC. He also reaffirmed Abia’s security status, warning that “Abia will remain off-limits to anyone or groups whose actions are inconsistent with the laws of the land. Troublemakers are warned to stay off because we have our eyes everywhere, and any reckless act will be met with the full weight of the law.”
Concluding, the governor called for collective responsibility in driving development, stressing that “Payment of taxes is therefore an investment in the growth of your business, because what you pay is applied to making the environment conducive for your continued growth and expansion.”
