10 Out Of Nigeria’s 36 States Publish LGA Budgets – BudgIT

Only 10 out of Nigeria’s 36 states currently publish the budgets of their Local Government Areas (LGAs), according to civic technology organisation BudgIT.

BudgIT disclosed this in a post on its official X handle, highlighting serious transparency gaps in grassroots governance.

It however failed to list the names of those who either did or failed to publish their LGAs’ budgets.

According to the organisation, six states provide only partial information on LGA budgets, while 20 states publish nothing at all. “The closest government to citizens has the hardest budgets to find,” BudgIT said today, questioning how citizens can track spending when the budgets are not publicly available.

The group also criticised the poor quality of budget descriptions in many public documents. It noted that projects are sometimes listed with vague terms such as “empowerment” or “special intervention,” without details on location, deliverables, or beneficiaries.

BudgIT warned that such lack of clarity makes it difficult for citizens to track projects and hold officials accountable.
“In Nigeria, billions of naira are budgeted for projects, yet when citizens visit the locations, nothing is there,” the organisation said.

The development comes despite a landmark 2024 ruling by the Supreme Court of Nigeria granting financial autonomy to the country’s 774 local governments.
The court barred state governors from withholding or controlling funds meant for LGAs and ordered that allocations from the Federation Account be paid directly to the councils.

However, implementation of the ruling has been slow, with many states still retaining a significant control over local government finances.

Transparency advocates say publishing LGA budgets is critical to ensuring that funds meant for grassroots development are properly tracked and utilised.