Kogi Wins Fiscal Transparency, Accountability Award

Kogi State has again won the 2022 fiscal transparency and accountability award in a survey conducted across the states in North Central Nigeria.

The first position award was presented to the state yesterday in Lokoja during the launch of the 2022 North Central State Budget Transparency Survey Report carried out by the Social Economic Research and Development Centre (SERDEC).

The national coordinator, State and National Budget Transparency Survey for the agency, Mr. Tijani Abdulkareem, who presented the report and the award, said the objective of the budget Transparency and Accountability Program was to promote focus and attention of Nigerian States towards the improvement of their budget performance in providing good governance to the people.

“Good governance starts from budgeting. This report and award are aimed at strengthening fiscal transparency to help build trust in government, facilitate accountability in public resource management and ensure sustainability in the participating states,” he said.

He added, “It is evident from the 2022 SNBTS on the public availability of budget documents and transparency that there are positive changes.

Most of the North Central states now publish their budget documents in 2022 compared to 2020.

“Nevertheless, in terms of state-by-state performance, none of the states provided extensive budget information to the public in 2022. Only Kogi State can be said to be significantly transparent and provide adequate amount of budget information to the public, as they score more than 60 per cent.”

Tijani explained that the reports were collated across the six states of the North Central zone between 2021 and 2022, adding that the states were judged based on parameters such as public participation, availability of budget, oversight functions of the state legislators and level of transparency of the procurement process.

He noted, “The survey was set up as a model to improve budget transparency amongst North Central states towards a better fiscal outcome.”