Ekiti Leads As Only 10 States Make LG Budgets Publicly Available
A nationwide assessment of fiscal transparency at the grassroots level has exposed a severe deficit in public access to local government financial information, with only 10 of Nigeria’s 36 states making annual budgets of their Local Government Areas publicly available online.
The findings, contained in a report titled “The Missing Tier: Mapping Local Government Budget Transparency in Nigeria” released by BudgIT, a civic organisation focused on budget accountability, paint a troubling picture of opacity at Nigeria’s third tier of government. The report found that while six states provide partial budget data, 18 states publish no LGA budget information whatsoever, effectively shutting citizens out of oversight processes at the council level.
“For most of Nigeria’s 774 local governments, those budgets are not publicly accessible online,” the report stated, noting that while budget documents are maintained at council secretariats across the country, they remain largely hidden from public scrutiny in digital spaces.
The 10 states identified as having publicly accessible LGA budgets include Ekiti, Ebonyi, Osun, Kebbi, Kogi, Enugu, Kaduna, Yobe, and two others not specified in the report’s initial release. Ekiti State was singled out as the leading performer in terms of local government budget transparency among Nigerian states.
However, BudgIT cautioned that even within this small group of relatively transparent states, significant challenges persist. “Many fail to provide up-to-date information, and several of the published LGA budgets are incomplete or poorly structured,” the report observed, suggesting that mere publication does not guarantee meaningful transparency.
The findings come at a time of renewed national focus on local government autonomy and financial accountability. Nigeria’s 774 local government councils are constitutionally recognised as the tier of government closest to the people, responsible for primary healthcare, basic education, rural infrastructure, and other essential services that directly impact millions of citizens daily.
Local governments in Nigeria are funded primarily through monthly allocations from the Federation Account, which pools revenues from oil, taxes, and other federal sources. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, LGAs collectively received over ₦4.5 trillion from federal allocations in 2023 alone. Yet despite handling such substantial public funds, most councils operate with minimal public oversight or transparency.
The Federal Government’s fiscal transparency portal, launched in 2019, provides detailed breakdowns of federal and some state budgets, but local government financial data remains conspicuously absent from the platform. The absence of standardised, accessible local government budget information has long been cited by civil society groups and development partners as a major obstacle to grassroots accountability in Nigeria.
The BudgIT report appears to be one of the first comprehensive attempts to map LGA budget transparency across all 36 states. The organisation, founded in 2011, has built a reputation for simplifying complex budget data and holding governments accountable for public spending through research, advocacy, and digital engagement.
Budget transparency at the local government level has been a recurring concern among governance experts. The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007, which mandates transparency in public finance management, applies primarily to federal institutions. While some states have enacted similar laws, enforcement remains weak, and local governments often operate outside the scope of formal fiscal accountability frameworks.
In recent years, civil society organisations have repeatedly raised alarms about the diversion of local government funds by state governors, a practice often facilitated by the lack of transparent budget processes at the council level. The Supreme Court’s landmark judgment in July 2024, which granted financial autonomy to local governments by mandating direct payment of allocations from the federation account to LGA accounts, was widely seen as a potential turning point. However, implementation has been uneven, and questions about transparency and proper utilisation of funds persist.
International development indices also reflect Nigeria’s poor performance in subnational fiscal transparency. The Open Budget Index, produced by the International Budget Partnership, consistently ranks Nigeria low on budget openness, with local government data often missing entirely from national assessments.
The implications of poor budget transparency extend beyond governance. Development experts argue that without accessible financial information, citizens cannot hold local officials accountable, making it easier for corruption and mismanagement to thrive. Communities remain unaware of the resources allocated for their development, and civil society groups struggle to advocate effectively for improved service delivery.
The report’s findings also highlight a significant regional disparity. While southern and middle belt states such as Ekiti, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Osun appear on the list of transparent states, the majority of states in the North West and South South zones provide little or no LGA budget data.
BudgIT’s research methodology involved scanning state government websites, local government portals, open data platforms, and official publications to determine the availability and quality of LGA budget information. The organisation’s report did not disclose the identities of the 18 states that publish no budget data, nor the six states offering partial information, leaving room for further scrutiny and follow-up reporting.