BudgIT has criticised the lack of transparency of 21 states across Nigeria for failing to publish their state’s budget.
The states who had detailed budgets published are Borno, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ondo, Plateau and Yobe.
It added that only 13 States -Borno, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kogi, Nasarawa, Ondo, Plateau and Yobe are sufficiently detailed, while Lagos and Kwara States provided a summary of their budgets on the government websites.
“The document provided lacks actionable detail with which citizens can hold their elected officials to account. Our organisation would like to state explicitly that Lagos and Kwara States have a history of opacity over the years and are notorious for resisting attempts by citizens to pry into the affairs of the state.”
BudgIT is currently conducting its #StateofStates campaign which examines the level of transparency in the 36 Nigerian States. In its online assessment on the availability of public finance documents in state government domains, it observed that as at June 20, 2018, only 15 States in the country had published their budget documents online. BudgIT, working on holding government accountable and creating an active citizenry to improve governance, is following the non-availability of states fiscal plan and urging Nigerians to demand their states’ budgets collectively.
