Public education budgeting across many sub-national governments in Nigeria continues to be conducted through centralised, top-down processes that leave teachers, school administrators and communities with little say over how allocated funds are actually spent, a practice widely associated with resource misallocation, weak accountability and stalled infrastructure delivery. Participatory budgeting, a governance mechanism through which citizens and stakeholders take a direct part in deciding how public funds are allocated, has attracted growing global attention as a remedy for these governance failures, yet its specific application within sub-national Nigerian education ministries remains comparatively under examined. This study investigated the relationship between participatory budgeting and resource allocation efficiency, transparency, accountability and stakeholder engagement within the Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Education. Anchored on Participatory Governance Theory and Public Choice Theory, the study adopted a descriptive survey research design, drawing on a structured questionnaire administered to Ministry officials, school administrators and teachers, with 230 of 250 distributed instruments properly completed and returned, a response rate of ninety-two per cent. Data were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while chi-square analysis was used to test the stated hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed a statistically significant positive relationship between participatory budgeting and resource allocation efficiency, transparency and accountability, and stakeholder engagement within the Ministry, with respondents consistently affirming that stakeholder involvement in budget decisions improved the alignment of funding with genuine institutional needs. The study concludes that participatory budgeting functions as an effective public financial management mechanism capable of strengthening governance outcomes within sub-national Nigerian education administration, and recommends that the Ministry formally institutionalise stakeholder participation in its budget cycle, strengthen monitoring and feedback mechanisms, and build the administrative capacity required to sustain participatory practice over time.

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