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BudgIT, a civic-tech organization, under its State Fiscal Transparency League project, has extensively assessed the procurement websites of Nigeria’s 36 states to evaluate the level of transparency and accessibility of procurement-related information to the public.
The assessments, categorized into three categories—Green, Yellow, and Red—are as follows: green indicates that a state’s e-procurement portal is operating and data is available; yellow shows that a state has functional portals but outdated data, while red shows a state has neither an eProcurement portal nor data.
Based on its assessment, Lagos, Kogi, Ekiti, Adamawa, Kaduna, Ondo, and Osun states in the green zone have a working e-procurement portal and accessible data. Abia, Anambra, Borno, Cross River, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Imo, Jigawa, Kwara, Nasarawa, Plateau, Ogun, Rivers, Taraba, and Zamfara states—yellow zone states—have functional portals but data on the portal are not up to date. Lastly, states with neither an e-procurement portal nor data—the red zone—include Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Delta, Gombe, Katsina Kano, Kebbi, Niger, Oyo, Sokoto, and Yobe.
BudgIT’s Head of Open Government and Institutional Partnership, Iyanuoluwa Bolarinwa, while speaking on the assessment, underlined the critical nature of safeguarding the successes of the World Bank’s SFTAS Program.
“Subnational governments must prioritize this to build trust with their constituents, attract foreign investments, support economic strategies, and enhance the well-being of citizens.”
To this end, BudgIT urged the subnational governments to prioritize improving their procurement websites to align with best practices for fiscal transparency.
“We also recommend collaboration between states to share best practices and address common challenges to advance transparent procurement practices for fiscal accountability”, It added.
