Our 2018 Annual Report
Reached 5,212,432 citizens
15
Journalists trained
35
Staff
11
Institutional Engagement
Budget Access
BudgIT reached approximately 7.2million Nigerians through social media, town halls, electronic media, blogs, print media, SMS and emails, print publications and other media sources. Over 946 data requests were sent and answered in 2018 while simplified public data showed, to some degree, the relationships between key government programs and fiscal indicators including inflation, exchange rate variation, interest rate and corruption among others.
At the sub-national level, the research team simplified the 2018 Kaduna state proposed and approved budget under the Open Kaduna project. The budgets of Kano, Ebonyi, Lagos, Ekiti, Kwara, Kogi, Enugu, Gombe, Akwa Ibom, Nasarawa, Plateau, Delta, Rivers, Anambra, Ondo and Edo states were equally analyzed, simplified into infographics and shared with the public. For Lagos, a publication titled Lagos Factbook, a compilation of essential facts around
Lagos state’s fiscal positions, debts, socioeconomic indices, was published, reaching over 804,156 people in Lagos. Over 220 infographics on state government budgets were shared on our various social media platforms in 2018 with millions of engagement reach.
State of States Report
In 2018, we also published the State of States report, a data-driven publication on the fiscal positions and export potentials that abound in the 36 states of Nigeria. As of December 31, 2018, 32,021 persons had downloaded the report directly from BudgIT’s website or via requests made through emails and direct calls.
The State of States report ranked states using different metrics, including states’ domestic and foreign debt profiles, internally generated revenue, value-added tax receipt, statutory revenue, budget size, and ability to meet recurrent expenditure obligations among others. Some organizations including the IMF, the World bank wrote/spoke to BudgIT about the possibility of using the index for internal assessment mechanism at the sub-national level.
Lagos state’s fiscal positions, debts, socioeconomic indices, was published, reaching over 804,156 people in Lagos. Over 220 infographics on state government budgets were shared on our various social media platforms in 2018 with millions of engagement reach.
22,061
Distributed Publication Copies
25
Publications developed
22,260
Hardcopy publications distributed
“To understand how we can properly act our role as a vital intermediary in Nigeria's democratic transition,
we need to stay close to the citizens. This is important to the work we do.”
Enlivening Nigeria’s
Extractive Industry
In 2018, we used our social channels to demand the timely release of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) Monthly Financial and Operations Report. We hosted 3 extractives consultative group meetings and published 3 policy briefs. We published “Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry: The Lingering Issues” which made salient observations/recommendations to stakeholders and citizens through visual content. The publication was shared extensively on our social media platforms, driving conversations around the highlighted issues.
Furthermore, our extractives team shared insights with stakeholders and participated in at least 15 workshops. In 2018, we gave massive publicity to the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill that was passed into law by the National Assembly. We equally participated, actively, in the public hearings organized by the Federal House of Representatives and the Senate respectively on the much-awaited parts of the Petroleum Industry Reform Bills — Petroleum Host and Impacted Communities Development Bill (PHICDB), Petroleum Industry Fiscal Bill (PIFB) and Petroleum Industry Administration Bill (PIAB). Our findings were published in two different blog posts. Equally, we submitted a memo on the PIBs to the Senate asides the PIAB and PHICDB visual analysis that was shared online.
We hosted a data journalism training for 15 journalists as part of our strategy to build the capacity of journalists reporting oil and gas sector data. Besides, the extractives team in collaboration with the Creative Department carried out training and production on infographics and videography for NEITI staff in Abuja.
Tracka: Public Resources
For The Good Of All
To promote transparency and accountability in the budget process, Tracka has doubled its effort to raise public awareness of capital projects by federal and state governments, ensuring that public resources work for the good of all. Overall, a total of 1,313 Zonal Intervention Projects were tracked in the focus states. Out of these projects, as tracked, 488 were completed, 213 are still ongoing while 207 have not started actualized. A total number of 216 project locations were unspecified and 189 projects were totally abandoned by contractors.
It is astounding to see how popular Tracka has become in our focus communities and indeed in the whole federation. We have a presence in 496 local government areas. We tracked over 13,418 projects in over 7,000 communities and organized more than 6,035 town hall meetings to sensitize citizens across the country. With increasing appeal for this project, we plan to scale to all 36 states. As at December 2018, we have tracked a total number of 334 Zonal Intervention Projects for 2018.
It is astounding to see how popular Tracka has become in our focus communities and indeed in the whole federation. We have a presence in 496 local government areas. We tracked over 13,418 projects in over 7,000 communities and organized more than 6,035 town hall meetings to sensitize citizens across the country. With increasing appeal for this project, we plan to scale to all 36 states. As at December 2018, we have tracked a total number of 334 Zonal Intervention Projects for 2018.
22 out 36 states
TRACKA states
6,035
Town Hall meetings
248 CSOs supported
Institutions & Partnerships
Open Alliance, a coalition working to strengthen civil society organizations working in the Open Government Partnership (OGP), welcomed new members from across Nigeria in 2018, increasing membership to 157 by the end of the year. This includes Anambra, Abia and Jigawa states alongside Kaduna, Kano, Niger, Edo, Enugu, and Ebonyi.
Besides, Open Alliance Nigeria also engaged non-state actors in Oyo, Ondo, Anambra, Ebonyi, Niger, Rivers, Abia, and Imo states on the co-creation process, capacity building on OGP to engage relevant stakeholders and, in some cases, assisted in developing a draft CSO state action plan
BudgIT held an education summit titled “Education Financing & The Context of Corruption” during which over 500 CSOs and education experts talked about the cost of corruption in the sector. Dr. Shaubi represented the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and spoke on the agency’s reforms to minimize corruption.
A Global Audience on
Investing in the People
A great supporter of our work through his foundation, Mr. Bill Gates, made a speech to the Special Session of Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council; he focused his theme on “Investing in the People of Nigeria” with references to increased investment in health and education. After this, BudgIT held a national event in partnership with Channels TV to deepen conversations on this issue and chart a way forward.
We are paying more attention to how to expand the quality of Nigerian human assets through sustained investment in social sectors. Over 1.5m Nigeria watched the event, providing us feedback to be sent to the Presidency in 2019.
139 CSOs in Open Alliance
Civic Hive: Supporting Gavel and Amplify to Scale
Civic Hive is still in its early stages and has two great stories through the work of Gavel and Amplify. While Gavel provides access to justice for underserved people, Amplify uses storytelling to expand conversations on perennial issues of neglect in communities and connects citizens with other stakeholders for action.
Through BudgIT’s support, Amplify and Gavel have raised 200,000 USD from Trust Africa and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa. The new round of Civic Hive fellows will be announced in 2019.
Deepening our reach to States/Sub-national Governments
We have worked well with the Federal Government but we recognize that state governments need attention. We have worked to simplify budgets for 22 states, spreading the reach to over 5,000,000 Nigerians through our publications, the radio, and social media.
In addition to our State of States project, we are raising awareness on transparency across states. BudgIT signed an Open Budget partnership project with Ebonyi State, strengthening the state’s capabilities to make budgets and expenditure transparent for citizens. We also provided support to Kaduna State Ministry of Finance in improving its budget implementation report template.