Is Nigeria Committed to its own Financial Transparency Provisions?

Despite launching the Open Treasury Portal in 2019 with the aim of boosting financial transparency in the country, the Nigerian government and its agencies continue to breach its own standards on financial transparency.

The government has not kept up with efficient and timely publishing of financial statements to show how monies are spent in the country.

The Open Treasury Portal was launched in December , 2019, but much has not been achieved with respect to up-to-date publishing of monthly, quarterly and yearly budget and financial records of the country.

One of the provisions of the portal reads that the government will publish Audited Financial Statements for the Federal Government and all Public Sector entities within a month of the end of the first quarter of the following year.

The government has however been unable to meet this standard, leaving Nigerians in the dark for a long period on how monies are spent.

As at the time of this report , the government has published 2018 general purpose financial statements although the platform for downloads has been inaccessible in 2022. This financial statement is four years old,  and over three years late for the stipulated date of release.

The government also published the 2019 audited financial report in 2021, two years after the financial year and one year, eight months after the stipulated period for publishing based on the financial transparency requirements.

Since the launch of the platform till date, the government has been unable to achieve its timeline for publishing annual financial statements, the 2018 general purpose financial statement and 2019 audited financial statements are the latest uploads announced by the government. 

As of April 2022, the government is yet to publish 2020 audited statements.

The inability of the government to uphold its own requirements mean that the goals for adopting Open Treasury portal, such as financial transparency to cement government commitment at improving governance, and partnerships aimed at helping to ensure accountability, are not achieved.  Late publishing of financial statements, years after their use, is contrary to these stated objectives of the government.

Already, there are concerns over Nigeria’s commitment to financial/fiscal  transparency despite promises of accountability by the government on different occasions.

The Open Budget Partnership for instance ranks Nigeria on 97th position of 117 countries on transparency, while noting that the country has failed to publish audited reports in a timely manner.

Late publishing or non-publishing of these reports  may also strengthen corrupt practices.

Other countries around the world have started enshrining principles of timely and comprehensive publishing of financial reports, for instance, the South Africa National Treasury Annual report , the comprehensive and timely audit reports of Ghana among others.

The International Budget Partnership recommended that Nigeria should publish the Pre-Budget Statement, In-Year Reports, Mid-Year Review, and Audit Report online in a timely manner. The group also recommended that the Audit Report should be published online within 18 months after the end of the fiscal year.