Budget oversight and accountability in Nigeria: what incentivises digital and non-digital citizens to engage?

Abstract

Opening up the budgets of economies such as Nigeria’s continues to be a challenge, and most citizens remain in the dark on how the budget is formulated and executed. One obstacle is citizens’ lack of access to information on budgeted projects within their communities; while a budget containing lots of technical jargon means that most Nigerians are unable to understand the budget and are, therefore, limited in their ability to monitor its progress. As a pioneer in the field of social advocacy combined with technology, BudgIT, a social advocacy organisation in Nigeria, aims to simplify the topic of public spending for citizens with the aim of increasing transparency and accountability in government. This practice paper reports on practitioner research conducted by BudgIT, and documents a reflective conversation on the implications of its findings for future efforts to improve accountability in Nigeria. It aims to discover if access to information leads to empowerment, as well as demands for accountability; and whether demands for accountability necessarily lead to the greater responsiveness of public institutions.