Ken Okeke
The Government of the United States of America (USA) has called for improved procurement process in Nigeria, urging the country to publish accessible information on public procurement contracts.
The US government observed that Nigeria is not making significant progress in fiscal transparency, referencing gaps in the country’s budget disclosure, expenditure reporting, public procurement transparency and audit processes.
The assessment is contained in a report by the United States Department of State, which reviewed Nigeria’s fiscal transparency practices in its 2026 fiscal transparency report for countries published on Tuesday.
The report observed during the review period, that the government made its enacted budget and end-of-year report widely and easily accessible to the public, including online, but did not publish its executive budget proposal within a reasonable period. The government according to the report made information on debt obligations, including major state-owned enterprise debt, publicly available, but budget documents did not provide a substantially complete picture of the government’s revenues and expenditures, or break down expenditures to support executive offices in the budget.
Actual revenues and expenditures did not reasonably correspond to those in the enacted budget.
The supreme audit institution did not meet international standards of independence or publish substantive reports but did have access to the entire executed budget. The sovereign wealth fund had a sound legal framework and disclosed its source of funding and general approach to withdrawals.
The government specified in law the criteria and procedures for awarding natural resource extraction contracts and licenses and followed existing regulations in practice.
Also, the government did not publish accessible information on public procurement contracts.
To make progress the US urged Nigeria to take action to improve fiscal transparency by making its executive budget proposal widely and easily accessible to the public, including online; provide in the budget a substantially complete picture of the government’s revenues and expenditures; break down expenditures to support executive offices in the budget; ensure actual revenues and expenditures reasonably correspond to those in the enacted budget and equally ensure the supreme audit institution meets international standards of independence and publishes audit reports of the government’s executed budget; and