Just 10 States make Local Government budgets publicly accessible on the internet, according to BudgIT findings

By Emma Ujah

A new report by BudgIT has revealed that only 10 states in Nigeria have publicly accessible annual budgets for their Local Government Areas (LGAs).

The report, titled “The Missing Tier: Mapping Local Government Budget Transparency in Nigeria,” found that while six states provide partial data, as many as 18 states publish no LGA budget information at all.

According to BudgIT, although local government budgets are maintained at council secretariats across the country, they are largely inaccessible to the public online.

“For most of Nigeria’s 774 local governments, those budgets are not publicly accessible online,” the report stated.

The organisation identified Ekiti State as the leading state in terms of LGA budget transparency. Other states listed include Ebonyi State, Osun State, Kebbi State, Kogi State, Enugu State, Kaduna State and Yobe State.

However, the report noted that even among these states, many fail to provide up-to-date information, and several of the published LGA budgets are incomplete or poorly structured.