JIGAWA COMES OUT ON TOP IN AN ASSESSMENT ON BUDGET TRANSPARENCY IN 2022.

The Jigawa State Government has been named the top performer in the 2022 sub-national citizens’ budget transparency survey report for the second time.

Tijjani Abdulkareem, Executive Director of the Socio-economic Research and Development Centre, announced this on Tuesday during the North-West zonal introduction of the 2022 States Budget Transparency Index for Nigerian states in Kano State.

The aim of the report, according to him, is to highlight areas where reforms are needed and how citizens and government may collaborate through participation in ensuring that the government is held accountable for public information.

Following the implementation of the CSO’s recommendations and report in 2015, states are now producing a budget citizens report to help citizens understand the budget process.

“The 2022 sub-national Budget Transparency survey is a report that addresses the government’s issues of budget transparency, accountability, and public access to budget information,” he explained.

“This report is that every year, Civil Society Organizations and the government collaborate in assessing the level of access to budget information, budget process, audit process information, and public procurement process information.”

“States have embraced the recommendations and collaborated with CSOs to produce citizens’ budgets, and today, all North Western states produce citizens’ budgets every year.” They share it with citizens to simplify the budget process, so it all comes down to the CSOs’ commitment and resilience, as well as the government’s commitment to ensuring that citizens are more involved in the budget process.

“We have Kano coming second in the National chart index and they are also performing well but a few years back, we had some states at the back seat but are now progressing, following the adoption of involving the public in budget processes.”