Olarewaju, an Economist, Researcher, and Lecturer in management at Keele University, said research into budget transparency, corruption, and digital public monitoring found that existing access points do not provide a reliable mechanism for ordinary Nigerians to scrutinise public spending. The research also highlighted problems linked to a citizen-facing portal operated by the Budget Office of the Federation, described as frequently offline.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Olarewaju argued that restricted access to budget information weakens the social contract by limiting public oversight of how national resources are allocated. Olarewaju described the budget system as historically \u201cclosed\u201d, rooted in institutions inherited after independence that were not designed around public welfare. In a country with roughly 250 ethnic groups and more than 500 languages, Olarewaju said the budget is one of the central tools that should enable shared decision-making and accountability.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Olarewaju proposed a real-time digital budget system where inflows such as taxes, oil revenue, grants, and trade receipts are visible on a central portal, with limited exceptions for sensitive security spending. The proposal includes real-time tracking of transfers from the federal level to state accounts, followed by transparent reporting on procurement, contract awards, and payments to suppliers.<\/p>\n
Under the proposal, public visibility would extend beyond allocation to delivery. Olarewaju said citizens should be able to verify that a project funded by public money is completed, with a credible enforcement mechanism triggered when payment occurs without delivery.<\/p>\n
Olarewaju said no positive response has been received from the government so far, with resistance expected from actors benefiting from inflated contracts, vague budget lines, non-delivery, and weak enforcement. Olarewaju said transparency reforms must be paired with fair prosecution mechanisms, including asset seizure and prison terms where legal thresholds are met.<\/p>\n
Olarewaju argued that a real-time system would not only deter corruption but also strengthen public confidence by making public finance traceable, measurable, and enforceable.<\/p>\n
–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":34085,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-34084","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Concerns about limited public access to Nigeria\u2019s national budget have prompted Economist Dr Tolu Olarewaju to call for a real-time digital system that allows citizens to track revenue, spending, and project delivery across government.\r\n","published_date":"","news_description":"Concerns about limited public access to Nigeria\u2019s national budget have prompted Economist Dr Tolu Olarewaju to call for a real-time digital system that allows citizens to track revenue, spending, and project delivery across government.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34086,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34084\/revisions\/34086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}