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Out of 36 states in Nigeria, only seven states have their 2018 budgets made public, according to BudgiT, a civil organisation that deals in budget transparency and accountability.
According to the BudgiT’s report compiled by BusinessDay, 27 states have signed their 2018 budget into law, but only seven – Delta, Edo, Kaduna, Kastina, Kogi, Kwara, and Yobe – have their budget documents published online or are in public domain.
Analysts attribute this to the poor transparency and accountability level, and lack of appreciation of technology of the state governments.
“When we talk about budget, it is not a private document of the government but a public one, and since it is signed into law it should be made available to the public,” Ayodele Shittu, a lecturer in the Department of Economics, University of Lagos, said.
According to a transparency index by International Budget Partnership (IBP) 2017, released January 30, 2018, Nigeria’s budget transparency level is ranked poorly compared with other African countries. The country is ranked 80 out of 115 countries, notching 17 points out of a possible 100.
“It is part of what may be responsible for the underdevelopment that we are seeing in the country. Also, with the level of non-transparency it gives a lot of opportunity for misappropriation,” Ayodeji Ebo, managing director of Afrinvest, said.
Ibrahim Tajudeen, head of research, Chapel Hill Denham, said there was no law making the budget to be transparent, so the little they could show off was what they were showing, saying, “They are not mandated by law to show the budget information to the public.”
Although, it is yet to be passed into law, states like Lagos, Cross River and Akwa Ibom, not only have the highest budget expenditure among the 36 states, but also there budgets have also not been published online; Cross River budget has the highest with N1.3 trillion followed by Lagos State and Akwa Ibom with N1.04 trillion and N646.7 billion, respectively.
“If we are going to be paying taxes to the state government as citizens we are also entitled to know how our tax money is being spent in the budget. So, it is more of transparent and fiscal responsibility on the parts of states so that we can hold our government accountable for the tax we pay and make sure that our taxes are properly used,” Dolapo Ashiru, CEO, Mega Capital Financial Services Limited, said.
While some suggest that publicising the budgets shows government transparency and accountability to the people, few feel the publication does not entirely mean that the government is transparent.
“If Zamfara State gives out its budget online. The question is for whom is it for? But, does it really improve the governance and transparency from the perspective that people really governed,” Wolemi Esan, partner, Energy and Infrastructure at Olaniwun Ajayi LP, said.
According to Esan, there should be a law that enforces states to publish their budgets. To improve our rankings and transparency level among the states and the country as a whole, analysts are of the view that a law should be enforced to make budgets to be made public.
“The minister of finance has to pass a law compelling states to publish their budgets and audited accounts; also, their FAAC allocation should be withheld or de-regularised and this will force some form of accountability and reduce misappropriations,” Ebo said.
South Africa emerged tops of the best performing African countries, scoring 89 out of 100; Senegal scored 51; Ghana scored 50; Namibia scored 50; Kenya scored 46; Morocco scored 45; Egypt scored 41; Mali scored 39; while Tunisia scored 39, and Benin scored 39.
The top 10 African countries that scored poorly were Tanzania scoring 10 out of 100, Botswana scored 8, Zambia scored 8, Burundi scored 7, Cameroon scored 7, South Sudan scored 5, Algeria scored 3, Chad scored 2, and Niger scored 0, in budget transparency issues.
