The BudgIT Foundation has identified significant funding and transparency gaps in Nigeria’s climate finance architecture, arguing that open and accountable budget processes are critical tools for ensuring the country’s economic and environmental future.
Speaking at a stakeholder roundtable on strengthening fiscal sustainability and climate action through open budgets in Abuja, Deputy Country Director Vahyala Kwaga stated that the initiative was motivated by rising climate risks and a lack of accountability in public expenditure.
“The world in which we live is constantly buffeted by different natural and ecological occurrences,” he said, adding that “the impacts of climate change will disproportionately affect us because we do not have mitigation, adaptation, and resilience measures in place.”
Kwaga explained that the meeting was held to develop an advocacy and position paper for federal and state governments aimed at improving climate-related spending and governance.
He emphasised that “there is a significant funding gap, a significant transparency and accountability gap,” and urged civil society organisations to work “collaboratively, collectively” to demand better information and implementation.
On citizen engagement, he stated that BudgIT uses media platforms and its service delivery arm, TRACA, to raise awareness.
“If you have a political system in which citizens are not involved or participate, decisions will be made without your input,” he warned, adding that climate change affects “poor and vulnerable people even more”.
Kwaga identified three major concerns regarding the budget cycle’s grey areas. “One issue is that climate-specific finance line items are not properly tagged. Second, there appears to be some fragmentation.
Finally, there isn’t timely, adequate, disaggregated reporting,” he said, even though some states provide more detailed budget implementation reports than the federal government does.
Alice Adedayo, Senior Programmes Officer, described the project as an evolving climate finance track rather than a predetermined timeline.
“It’s something that will continue to evolve. It’s a continuous thing,” she said, revealing that “between 2021 and 2022, we recorded an inflow of about 2.5 billion dollars of climate finance, the majority of which was public debt finance.”
Adedayo stated that the goal is to integrate climate action into public finance at the federal and subnational levels.
“We want to see how we can mainstream climate action into public finance,” she said, adding that BudgIT intends to collaborate with civil society organisations to ensure budgets are properly tagged under the national chart of accounts for easier tracking.
She also warned against exacerbating Nigeria’s debt situation in the name of climate action.
“We also want to see a situation in which there is no cost to increasing public debt while we are attempting to mitigate climate action and adaptation. So the key is also economic security for Nigeria,” she said.
Enebio Palua, who leads BudgIT’s Natural Resource and Climate Governance team, believes that open budgets are still essential for fiscal sustainability.
“Open budgets are processes that allow transparency, accountability, and participation in the budget process,” he explained, noting that delays and irregularities in Nigeria’s budget cycle have hampered implementation of climate projects.
Palua advocated for reforms to restore the traditional budget calendar. “There is a need for reform.” “There is a need for reform,” he said, urging the earlier release of key documents like the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and the timely passage of budgets before the start of each fiscal year.
He also demanded regular reporting and publication of audited financial statements.
“The last financial statement from Nigeria has been audited. We urge the government to release these financial statements,” he said, warning that poor reporting indicates to development partners that Nigeria is not fully prepared for accountable climate finance.
Palau was unambiguous about the role of citizens and the media, saying, “Get involved.” He advocated for town hall meetings and the use of BudgIT’s tracking platforms to monitor state and local government projects, claiming that when governments know citizens are watching, “they will be much more responsive to showing that they are doing their job in the right way.”
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