Kenneth Afor |
Nigeria’s foremost tech-based civic engagements platform BudgIT has called on state governments who are yet to give account on the expenditure of COVID-19 funds to do so.
According to the organisation, the Federal Government and the 36 states have received over N213 billion as COVID19 palliatives in cash and in kind adding that only 8 states have so far published how funds given to them were spent.
However, states such as Ogun, Katsina, Lagos, Ebonyi, Oyo, Ondo, Kaduna and Ekiti have responded on the call of the organisation in publishing the account of COVID-19 expenses.
It, therefore, urges the 28 states left to follow suit stressing that this would boost citizen’s confidence in governance as well as increasing public awareness.
Gabriel Okeowo, BudgIT’s Principal Lead reiterates the needs for proper accountability of the funds for the sake of transparency in governance and for the populace.
“To properly measure the effectiveness of the funds received by the state governments on COVID19 response, states need to be totally transparent and accountable to its citizens by publishing detailed information of how these funds are being spent. Civic Hive will be at the core of driving this objective,” Okeowo said.
Details of how much was spent by the federal government and the states are captured on the organisation’s digital platform dedicated for COVID-19.
Okeowo urges the citizens and other Civil Society Organisations (CSO) to collaborate, support and join its advocacy on accountability from both the federal and state governments.
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