damning new report by BudgIT has exposed a major transparency deficit in Nigeria’s local government system, revealing that only 10 out of 36 states publish Local Government Area (LGA) budgets online while Abia State is among 18 states providing zero access.
The study, titled “The Missing Tier: Mapping Local Government Budget Transparency in Nigeria,” highlights the widespread inaccessibility of financial data at the grassroots level, directly affecting citizens’ ability to hold officials accountable.
Just six states offer partial budget disclosure, leaving the vast majority of LGAs effectively off the public radar. BudgIT stressed that while budgets are prepared and maintained at council secretariats nationwide, they are rarely accessible online to citizens, journalists, or researchers.
“For most of Nigeria’s 774 local governments, those budgets are not publicly accessible online,” the report bluntly states.
Ekiti State emerged as the top performer in LGA budget transparency, followed by Ebonyi State, Osun State, Kebbi State, Kogi State, Enugu State, Kaduna State, and Yobe State.
Even among the better-performing states, the report noted shortcomings such as incomplete uploads, outdated documents, and poor formatting that impede usability.
BudgIT warns that the lack of online LGA budget disclosure undermines public accountability, citizen participation, and oversight of how trillions of naira allocated to 774 local governments are spent.
The findings arrive amid national debates on local government autonomy, fiscal federalism, and the urgent need for stronger transparency mechanisms at the grassroots level.
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