Open budgeting, climate finance reporting key — BudgIT

2026-02-26 - 12:18

By Progress Godfrey ABUJA — As Nigeria grapples with the growing impact of climate change and weak public finance systems, BudgIT Foundation, a civic technology organisation, has said open budgeting and robust climate finance reporting are crucial to the country’s ability to respond effectively. The organisation made this known during a stakeholder workshop held in Abuja on Wednesday in collaboration with the Partnership for Agile Governance and Climate Engagement (PACE), where civil society organisations gathered to explore ways to close funding gaps in climate financing in Nigeria. Speaking at the event, Deputy Country Director of BudgIT Nigeria, Vahyala Kwaga, said the initiative was prompted by the disproportionate impact of global industrialisation on developing countries like Nigeria, which face severe climate risks despite contributing little to environmental degradation. “Unfortunately, because of the nature of industrialisation and the way development happens, certain countries in previous years may have contributed a lot towards environmental degradation. However, for developing countries like Nigeria that may not be that industrialised, we still have to be conscious and aware of the fact that the impacts of climate change will disproportionately affect us because we do not have the mitigation, adaptation and resilience measures in place,” he said. Kwaga also urged the federal government to take stronger action on the budget cycle, noting that timely and structured processes are essential for effective climate finance. He described the Budget Call Circular as a key entry point for climate finance advocacy because it determines government priorities before budgets are prepared. He explained that early engagement with the budget office enables civil society organisations to influence how climate change, sustainability and spending are reflected across ministries, thereby linking policy direction with actual budget outcomes. He further explained that the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) should anchor climate action within Nigeria’s fiscal planning, as it provides three-year projections that shape annual budgets. According to him, without clear climate adaptation and sustainability priorities in the MTEF, climate spending would remain weak, fragmented and inconsistent at both federal and state levels. “The MTEF is meant to influence the appropriation act. So the principles, the projections, the arguments in the MTEF should influence the budgets. If we open the budget, we should see care being made to sustainability measures and green initiatives. So if we don’t see sustainability measures and green initiatives in the budgets, we can tell the federal government what they said in the MTEF,” he said. On Budget Implementation Reports, he noted that states are performing better than the federal government in providing information on spending, but said improvements are still needed in timeliness and depth. “At the sub-national level, I have to give commendation to a lot of the state governors in their budget implementation reports. There is disaggregated information. In fact, I would even go out on a limb by saying the reporting in state budget implementation reports is far more comprehensive than federal budget implementation reports, but states can do better,” Kwaga added. The deputy country director stressed that closing funding, transparency and accountability gaps would require stronger collaboration among civil society organisations to ensure governments act on policy recommendations and strengthen climate-related interventions. “We as CSOs need to work collaboratively and collectively to ensure that the government provides information and acts upon the recommendations and resolutions that we provide,” he said.