CIRDDOC Ranks Jigawa Best in 2022 States’ Budget Transparency
The annual States Budget Transparency Survey (SBTS) for 2022 has ranked Jigawa state as the most transparent state in terms of budget accessibility.
This is the second time that the state is ranking the position, with 84 per cent points. It is closely followed by Adamawa and Kano states.
The report was presented at the launching of the 2022 report of the SBTS for the north west zone by the Africa Centre for Innovation Research and Development (AFRI-CIRD), at held at Kano on Monday.
According to the Executive Director, Socio-economic Rights and Development Center (SODEC), Tijjani Abdulkarim, there has been significant improvement over the last few years in terms of the budget transparency.
He said, “The report speaks about issues around budget transparency, budget accountability and access to budget information by the government.
“Every year, the civil society organisations and government work together in accessing the level of public access to information around budget process, the audit process, the public procurement to identify areas that reforms are needed so as to have areas of inclusion.
“Interestingly, the performance of the states has improved tremendously. When we started in 2015, most of the states were performing badly because there was no access to information and the rest. But over the years, this assessment has provided opportunity for government to look at areas that reforms are needed and we helped in improving it through inclusion,” he added.
Earlier speaking, Kano state Commissioner for Planning and Budget, Musa Sulaiman Shanono, lauded the NGO for engaging all the stakeholders to have input in the process of the survey and said it has improved transparency and accountability.
He explained that though there administration just assumed office, the report will serve as motivation for the to perform even better.
According to the report, states who get over 60 per cent are seen to be performing averagely, while those with less than 40 per cent are considered as those doing below average.
