Only two states in Nigeria scored above average for transparency and accountability in 2024, FIJ has found. The other 34 fell short again.

The 2024 Subnational Audit Efficacy Index, published by the Paradigm Leadership Initiative on Friday, ranks Yobe and Ekiti at the top with 73 and 54 per cent, respectively.

At the bottom, Bayelsa, Ebonyi and Ogun each scored a dismal 7 per cent. The report, an annual assessment of financial transparency and policy adoption across Nigeria’s state governments, paints a familiar picture: stagnation or decline.

The World Bank-backed States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability, and Sustainability (SFTAS) Programme had once driven improvements, but the latest findings suggest those gains are slipping away.

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FIJ understands that under the SFTAS programme, subnational governments in Nigeria became eligible for performance-based grants if they met specific transparency and accountability targets.

These conditions required the timely publication of key fiscal documents, such as audited financial statements and approved budgets, and demonstrable improvements in budget performance.

The 2024 index average dropped to 29.47 per cent, down from 30.58 per cent in 2023 and 31.81 per cent in 2022.

States were assessed on key factors: the strength and enforcement of audit laws, publication of audit documents, adherence to House resolutions on audit recommendations, evidence of performance audits, accessibility of Citizens’ Accountability Reports, effectiveness of Public Accounts Committees and the extent of civic and media participation in audits.

On paper, 34 states have audit laws. Benue and Anambra were the exceptions. In practice, enforcement is largely absent. Only four states have made meaningful progress in granting financial autonomy to the Auditor-General’s office.

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Administrative independence remains static at 12 states, unchanged from last year. The failure to publish financial reports continued from the previous year. Twenty-one states did not release their 2023 audit reports, repeating their failures from 2021 and 2022.

Five states failed to publish either an audit report or an audited financial statement. This is more than double the count in 2023.

The Public Accounts Committee, designed for legislative oversight, is barely functional. Only two states had active PAC operations this year, down from five in 2023.

Civic and media participation in the audit process remains minimal, with just three states allowing any form of external scrutiny. Even Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub, improved only slightly, moving from 5 per cent to 15 per cent.

FIJ has also reported several instances of fiscal shortcomings by Nigerian subnationals. As recently as 2024, seven states — Rivers, Gombe, Kano, Kebbi, Ogun, Sokoto, and Borno — had yet to publish their third-quarter Budget Implementation Reports, about 22 days to the end of the year, despite binding legislations.

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Beyond these audits, mismanagement runs deep.

FIJ has reported how states misused SABER funding. Bauchi, Ebonyi, and Sokoto, for instance, had allocated money to projects that either never existed or were unsustainable.

SABER, meant to build on SFTAS, promised $750 million in funding for states meeting transparency benchmarks.