Nigeria Budgetary Process Very Opaque, Ranks 90th In World

Nigeria Budgetary Process Very Opaque, Ranks 90th In World 

Nigeria budgetary process has been described as very apaque, ranking 90th in the world and 23rd in Africa on budget transparency rating out of 115 countries globally and 38 African countries in the 2017 Open Budget Index (OBI) survey which was released yesterday.

Nigeria’s score on the index dipped from 24 percent in 2015 to 17 percent, and currently ranks behind Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Liberia in Africa while South Africa has been ranked first alongside New Zealand globally.

The Open Budget Index (OBI) is a global independent, comparative measure of central government budget transparency. Countries covered by the survey are given a transparency score between 0 and 100, used to construct the Index which ranks the assessed countries.

OBI assesses the comprehensiveness and timeliness of budget information that governments make publicly available. The OBI survey also examines the extent of effective oversight provided by legislatures, the independent fiscal institutions and the supreme audit institutions, and the opportunities available to the public to participate in national budget processes.

Meanwhile, analysts at BudgIT have blamed Nigeria’s low rank on the failure of the federal government to produce mid-year review.

BudgIT expresses dismay at Nigeria’s current position on fiscal transparency and public participation in the budget process as Africa’s largest economy has apparently taken steps backwards despite persistent advocacy by citizens and repeated promises by the government to improve, Abiola Afolabi, Communications Lead at BudgIT, noted.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria provides her citizens with insufficient budget information making it difficult for taxpayers to understand how elected officials are utilising available resources. Also, the budget process takes very little feedback from the public, and the final budget document does not reveal how the meagre feedbacks are used", it stated.