The Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC) has launched $7,500 small grant fund for grassroots organisations working to monitor and check fraud associated with procurement processes in their states and Nigeria at large.
The PPDC said the grant is an opportunity for small organisations, individuals or groups, who may not have the capacity to fund investigations to leverage on this fund and grow. Applications for the funds will open on July 31, 2025, via our upgraded Budeshi portal.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, the chief executive of PPDC, Lucy Abagi, said: “This fund is our way of empowering local voices to lead transparency efforts in their communities and it marks the beginning of a Pan-African campaign to build a continent-wide network of procurement accountability champions.
“PPDC encourages small organizations to take advantage of this opportunity to register their business and organization to enable them access more funding. We are empowering local NGOs to track 2023 -2024 federal procurement projects in their communities. The best organisations will furthermore be awarded ‘the best procurement monitor award’ based on the effectiveness and results during the implementation of the mini-grant.”
Abagi, who was also recently named ‘Procurement Transparency Advocate of the Year’ during the 7th African Procurement & Supply Chain Summit, further noted that: “Transparency is not a luxury. It is a necessity. It is the bedrock of development, of equity, and of trust in our institutions. So to all civil society actors, reformers in government, journalists, and community leaders this award is for you. Thank you for your tireless work. Let’s continue to push boundaries, raise our voices, and create a future where public procurement truly works for everyone, especially the most marginalized among us.”
The PPDC also explained that the $7,500 grant will be shared among the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, with one beneficiary getting $200 in each state.
While speaking at the conference, the board chairman of the PPDC, Chibuzo Ekwekwuo, said PPDC has contributed to the growth in transparency of the procurement process both in Nigeria and across Africa.
Some of the activities of PPDC over the years include the introduction of Budeshi, which is Nigeria’s first open contracting data standard platform and has also enabled ordinary citizens to track how public funds are being spent from the planning stage of a project, all the way to its execution.
According to PPDC, ” What started in Nigeria is now inspiring reforms beyond our borders, including in Uganda where we have supported the development of a national OCDS portal.
“Over the past three years, with support from the MacArthur Foundation, made significant progress, where we have seen a 79.8 per cent increase in government response rates to Freedom of Information requests, a clear sign that transparency is no longer optional.
We have published over 14,000 procurement records on Budeshi. We have tracked 54 community projects fixing schools, clinics, and restoring trust in underserved communities and, most importantly, we have strengthened the lines of communication between citizens and government and we have continued to save lives through ensuring that our hospitals work, that children can go to school and that everyone can have access to quality service delivery.”
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