The purpose of this study was to examine governments’ engagement initiatives, challenges and opportunities in community development in Cross River State, Nigeria. Three research questions were raised with three objectives. There were 372 participants in the study sampled from six communities (three rural and three urban), one from each senatorial district and descriptive research method was used. A 20-item validated questionnaire (α =0.86) titled “Governments’ Engagement Initiatives in Community Development Questionnaire” (GEICDQ) was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics using mean and standard deviation were used to answer the study questions. The creation of recreation centres, human capacity building, skill acquisition programmes, scholarships, and the provision of social amenities were among the basic interventions that were identified. The obstacles linked to these interventions included irregularities, dishonesty, insufficient financial support, absence of oversight, and inadequate upkeep of finished interventions. However, there were also prospects for community development, such growth of social capital, human capacity building, public office holders’ trust, and community leaders’ trust. Among the solutions put forth includes the necessity of government interventions for community development to be implemented and sustained.