LAGOS, NIGERIA – A staggering 26 states in Nigeria fail to publish local government budgets online, leaving citizens in the dark about how public funds are managed at the grassroots, a new BudgIT report has revealed.
The civic technology organization’s latest assessment of fiscal transparency across the 36 states found that only 10 states have made local government appropriation documents publicly accessible. The report described the situation as a systemic failure of accountability that enables mismanagement and stifles citizen participation.
“Transparency at the local government level is not optional; it is fundamental to democratic governance. Unfortunately, the majority of states continue to operate in opacity,” the report stated.
States identified as transparent include Lagos, Kaduna, Edo, Ekiti, and a few others that consistently upload LG budgets to official portals. The remaining states either have no online presence for LG budgets or host outdated or incomplete documents.
BudgIT urged governors and state Houses of Assembly to prioritize open budget governance, calling on the federal government to tie allocations to transparency compliance. Civil society groups have renewed calls for the full implementation of the Freedom of Information Act at all levels of government.
The report has reignited debates on local government autonomy and the urgent need for accountability mechanisms to track the trillions of naira allocated to the third tier of government annually.
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