After the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) programme officially ended in December 2024, the Nigerian government introduced a follow-up scheme called the State Action on Business Enabling Reforms, or SABER.

The new programme, also funded by the World Bank, is meant to support state-level reforms that will improve the business environment and boost economic development.

SABER is a $750 million Programme-for-Results loan to state governments. It focuses on improving land administration, removing bottlenecks to doing business, digitising tax systems, promoting transparency and modernising regulatory processes.

In February, Minister of Finance Wale Edun confirmed that 33 states and the Federal Capital Territory had signed loan agreements under the SABER programme.

Of the 33 states that signed on to the SABER programme, 28 had already received a combined total of $68.36 million as of February. Since the programme is a Programme-for-Results (PforR) facility, funds are only disbursed after states meet specific reform targets known as Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs).

In other words, the money is released once a state has fulfilled the conditions tied to measurable reforms. However, FIJ reviewed publicly available SABER and Business Enabling Reform Action Plan (BERAP) reports and found that many states had not followed through on their commitments, particularly when it came to digital reforms.

ABIA STATE

Abia’s reform plans for 2023 to 2025 focused on reducing in-person contact and improving efficiency through digitisation. The state committed to streamlining land administration, digitising payments, and creating easier access to government forms and services.

In its 2024 action plan, Abia promised to launch a digital platform that would make it easier for citizens and businesses to acquire land, obtain Certificates of Occupancy and complete registration processes. The aim was to migrate from paper to digital forms and create an online “one-stop shop” for land-related services.

READ ALSO: FG’s 2022 Financial Statement Still Not Ready 18 Months After Deadline

However, at the time of drafting this report, there was still no standalone website for the Abia State Ministry of Land. The digital service links on the official state government website did not work. These were supposed to direct users to online services that would limit face-to-face interactions with government offices, but they led nowhere.

The state allocated N3 million for this project, according to its BERAP plan. RevolutionPlus Property Development was listed as the contractor handling the work.

Abia also promised to build a central platform where businesses could find information about fees, requirements and procedures. This was meant to increase transparency and support local investment.

Yet, the website of the Abia State Ministry of Trade and Investment has no such platform, and the Internal Revenue Service website only provides tax-related services. A centralised digital space for all business payments or investment processes does not exist.

There is a button on the state’s homepage that is supposed to connect users to this kind of platform, but it has been inactive since FIJ found it on April 9. Other buttons for digital land services and payments are also unavailable. Each of these had a N5 million budget under the BERAP plan.

BAUCHI STATE: DIGITAL REFORMS ARE SLOW HERE

Between 2023 and 2025, Bauchi State laid out decent plans under its BERAP, including digitising court processes, launching customer-friendly water service portals and automating urban planning systems. But year after year, many of these projects have been listed, re-funded and left largely incomplete.

The judiciary, for instance, was supposed to receive a website, laptops, printers and basic tools to improve operations, with a deadline and budget of N80 million in 2023.

When that didn’t happen, another N40 million was allocated in 2024. By 2025, a final N15 million was listed — this time for maintenance of the same website.

FIJ can confirm that the judiciary website now exists. However, the page is obscure and difficult to locate. It took multiple searches before it appeared on a search engine’s results page.

The website barely surfaced through Edge, and it didn’t rank well on more common browsers like Chrome or Firefox. Still, it remains the only digital reform the state has delivered without postponement since 2023.

Bauchi State Urban Water and Sewerage Corporation (BSUWSC), planned a customer data portal in 2023 with an allocation of N18 million.

When it wasn’t delivered, the same project appeared again in 2024 with the same amount. In 2025, it reappeared with a trimmed N5 million budget. The portal is still nowhere to be found.

The ministries of urban planning and commerce followed the same pattern. Website upgrades were budgeted at N50 million in 2023, N40 million in 2024 and N15 million in 2025. But their platforms remain either broken, unsafe or completely unusable.

READ ALSO: ANALYSIS: 26 of 36 States — and FCT — Have Substandard Websites. 14 Are Unusable for PLWDs

BAYELSA STATE: POSTPONED FOR 2 YEARS

Between 2023 and 2025, Bayelsa State’s BERAP plans have largely repeated the same reform ideas, only shifting the timelines forward. In its 124th executive council meeting, the state approved a reform package worth N1.18 billion with a December 2023 deadline.

The plans included setting up a physical and virtual One-Stop Investment and Doing Business Centre, enacting an Ease of Doing Business law, eliminating illegal tax collections and harassment during interstate trade, and improving the overall business environment.

By 2024, a revised BERAP plan was introduced, this time worth N1.47 billion. It added a few new plans: a law for public-private partnerships (PPP), streamlining the laying of broadband cables by private investors, simplifying access to information on business-related fees and procedures, and creating three export production zones across the state’s senatorial districts. All these reforms were meant to include digital components.

Most of the projects from 2023 were simply carried over into the 2024 plan, indicating they were not completed. A new deadline of December 2024 was set.

FIJ confirmed that the Bayelsa State Internal Revenue Service’s e-payment portal went live at the end of 2023 — a modest step towards simplifying taxes and payments.

In 2023, the state had proposed enabling self-service for Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) applications at a cost of N30 million. At the time, Bayelsa described the reform as “ongoing” and promised to complete and launch the portal.

But in 2024 and again in 2025, the same exact project was listed as a fresh initiative, now with a budget of N75 million. A search for a Bayelsa C of O portal returns no results. In fact, the Bayelsa Geographic Information System (GIS) itself does not have an official website.

The 2025 BERAP is nearly identical to the 2024 version in cost and content. No progress report for 2024 has been published.

BENUE STATE SABER

Benue’s State 2023 BERAP plans had reforms aimed at increasing transparency, simplifying business registration and improving access to public services.

These included publishing official fees and procedures online, deploying government-approved point-of-sale (PoS) machines, setting up feedback mechanisms and launching an e-registration portal under the Ministry of Trade and Investment.

The state reported that it had completed the fee publication campaign in its 2023 BERAP report. FIJ confirmed that information on official government fees is publicly available online. That reform, budgeted at N25 million, appears to have been delivered.

The e-registration portal, which was meant to simplify business premise permit registration and renewal processes, was also listed as complete in the 2023 BERAP report.

This project had a budget of N15 million. But between April 10 and press time, the portal has been intermittently unavailable or completely suspended.

This inconsistency directly violates the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) guidelines for government websites. These guidelines mandate that government digital platforms must be available at all times and meet stringent security standards to protect user data and ensure smooth public access.

In Benue, not only is the e-registration portal failing to meet these availability standards but the main state government website (hosting evidence of the other digital reforms) is also flagged as unsafe by modern browsers.

Additionally, in 2023, Benue dedicated N6.54 billion to digitising land titling and registration through a computerised system. One of the components of this was to develop a webpage for its GIS.

READ ALSO:SPOTTED: 2 Weeks After Expiration, State House Website’s Security Certificate Not Renewed

Although this reform was reported as complete in the BERAP documents, the associated website, while live, is also marked as insecure.

EBONYI STATE

FIJ already revealed how Ebonyi State claimed to have spent N6.3 million on a Ministry of Lands and Survey — which remained a digital ghost town — through its 2023 BERAP.

The 2023 fiscal year progress report, obtained by FIJ, boldly claimed that the state had integrated the existing process for issuing Certificates of Occupancy and other land documents into the website.

That claim does not hold water. The so-called integration is nowhere to be found. What exists is a half-built website with service links leading to unfinished pages on what appears to be a private web host. This specific part of the project gulped N4.5 million.

In the same year, Ebonyi listed the creation of a One Stop Shop (OSS) as completed. That checks out. The OSS was very much real, functional and responsive at press time.

The initiative was meant to make access to government agencies easier, with key players like the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Information and State Orientation, and EBBCIMA all tagged in the plan.

In 2024, the state budgeted a fresh N50 million to integrate the portals of these agencies into the OSS. According to the timeline, the process was to begin on January 10 and wrap up by January 24.

The first step involved getting federal and state agencies to assign desk officers to the OSS. The second was full integration of their portals into the Ebonyi State Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (EBSMEDA) portal for seamless information sharing.

But as of press time, not a single agency portal had been integrated into the OSS. What was available on the OSS website, at best, were vague descriptions of what each agency does. The State eventually itemised the upgrade of the OSS under its 2025 BERAP plan for N8 million.

EDO STATE SABER

In its 2023 Business Enabling Reform Action Plan, Edo State promised to digitise service delivery and make doing business easier. But outside of a few working platforms, most of the state’s plan is either dragging, delayed or still missing.

For starters, the state committed N50 million to harmonise tax payments and develop an electronic payment system for the Edo State Internal Revenue Service (EIRS). That part was delivered. The EIRS platform is live and functional, allowing businesses and individuals to make payments online with minimal hassle.

But that success is more the exception than the rule.

A separate N15 million was allocated for the design and launch of a system called EBREM, alongside other “related fixings”. FIJ could find no trace of EBREM online. It does not appear in the state’s digital infrastructure. There is no website, no page and no official reference beyond what was written in the BERAP plan.

Another digital component that fell short involved creating online platforms for thirteen government agencies, linking them to a single page managed by the state’s Investment and Promotion Agency. This was budgeted at N10 million and scheduled between February and September 2023. That timeline has passed with very little to show.

FIJ evaluated the One Stop Shop platform which was still up and accessible. It facilitated tax payments, employment services and business registration but offered little else. Most of the services that should be listed — including investment promotion and land titling — were either inactive or redirected to incomplete pages.

The Edo Geographic Information Service website, which features in the BERAP plans as a central platform for business documentation, was marked as unsafe and insecure.

Users attempting to request a Certificate of Occupancy through the One Stop Shop encounter an error page. Despite the ambition of the project, the platform does not integrate the other promised services. It remains mostly a standalone tax and land registry website.

To measure actual progress, FIJ examined the digital footprint of the thirteen agencies the state pledged to bring online. Two of those — the Public-Private Partnership Office, Physical Planning and the Ministry of Environment and Sustainability — have no visible websites. The State Electricity Regulatory website site was unavailable.

This same objective was quietly carried over to the 2024 BERAP plan, once again tagged with N10 million, now including the already-completed EIRS portal and a vague plan to promote open data.

By 2025, the entire digitisation plan had been repackaged under a more ambiguous label: “business automation and government-business interaction platform.” However, the rebranding does not hide the fact that most of the goals set in 2023 were either stalled or deferred with no clear roadmap.

In the 2024 BERAP, the state committed to transparency and open data. However, the Ministry of Finance website returns an error when users attempt to access any budget or fiscal information.

IMO STATE SABER

Since 2024, Imo State’s SABER plans have leaned heavily towards modernising land registration, acquisition and documentation processes.

That year, the state announced it would upgrade the Imo State Geographic Information System (GIS) website as part of its BERAP digital reform programme.

In addition, Imo pledged to develop a digitised Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) template, establish a data centre for land documentation and migrate existing C of Os into the system. The total allocation for this digital transformation stood at an ambitious N475 million.

More than a year later, there is little evidence of meaningful progress. Although the state government has yet to publish a 2024 BERAP progress report, the 2025 BERAP plan references the same components. It describes the 2024 reforms as “ongoing” and sets its timeline as a continuation of the previous year’s agenda.

A review of the Imo GIS platform suggests that the promised overhaul remains largely on paper. The property registration link leads to a broken page.

The section containing application guidelines appears to have been copied directly from the Kaduna State GIS platform, with images inserted haphazardly and little explanation tailored to Imo’s context.

The e-payment function, which should facilitate digital transactions, redirects users to QuickTeller, only to return an error message indicating that no biller is available. Simply put, the platform is not functional.

JIGAWA

Jigawa State has shown a relatively steady hand in executing the digital components of its BERAP commitments since 2023. That year, the state pledged to upgrade the website of its Ministry of Lands, and according to the 2023 BERAP progress report, the work was completed. FIJ’s review confirmed that the website was newly developed or recently redesigned and launched.

That said, while the visual overhaul is evident, the services on the platform remain largely non-functional. The digital interface exists, but service delivery is still offline.

In 2024, the state took a bolder step, expanding its digital reform efforts. In its BERAP submission for that year, it committed to creating websites or service portals for approximately ten key MDAs, especially those directly connected to business operations.

Agencies listed included the Ministries of Commerce, Lands, Justice, Agriculture, Youth Empowerment and Employment, InvestJigawa, the Jigawa State Internal Revenue Service, the Due Process and Project Monitoring Bureau, and the Ministry of Finance.

The 2024 BERAP progress report had not been published at press time. But the absence of those same digital plans from the state’s 2025 BERAP submission may suggest they have been completed. That assumption largely holds up: FIJ’s checks confirmed websites for the listed MDAs have indeed been created.

However, two of those platforms — the Ministry of Commerce and the Due Process and Project Monitoring Bureau — had been offline for more than three days at the time of reporting.

The sites were inaccessible and returned suspension notices when visited. This digital rollout was backed by an allocation of N27.5 million.

READ ALSO: NITDA: Scammers Using QR Codes to Lure Victims

KANO SABER

Kano State has a considerable part of its business reform on digitisation. Since 2023, the state’s BERAP plan has multiple activities dedicated to automating land services, digitising business processes and building functional e-governance platforms.

But from the public-facing side of these reforms, the reforms appear stalled. The state’s flagship project, the Kano Geographic Information System (Kano GIS), was meant to transform how residents access Certificates of Occupancy.

According to the BERAP action plan, the state estimated between N500 million and N600 million for the process and the corresponding processes.

But the site is a shell. At the time of drafting this report, there were no clear service descriptions, no active application links and no operational tools.

The pattern is the same with the others. The Kano Investment and Promotion Agency website — intended to function as the state’s One-Stop Shop — is currently unavailable.

Its landing page is an insecure microsite with a landing page fronted by a stock image of an Asian woman.

The Kano Lands portal has been “under scheduled maintenance” for longer than a week, while the Urban Planning Authority’s e-services are limited to static documents explaining how to apply in person.

Many of these digital projects first appeared in the state’s 2023 BERAP submission and were carried into the 2024 plan. At press time, the 2023 BERAP progress report has not been published on the designated webpages.

As a result of that, the details of how much progress the state achieved in the 2023 fiscal year are obscure. The 2025 plan has also not been made available.

NASSARAWA

In 2023, Nasarawa State allocated N121 million for the development of websites for 13 business-related ministries, departments and agencies.

The funding, captured in its BERAP reform plan, was meant to support digitisation across key institutions. It covered the design of websites, the training of staff, and the provision of equipment and tools to modernise operations.

READ ALSO: 22 Days to Year End, 7 States Hide Q3 Budget Performance Despite Binding Laws

According to the 2023 BERAP progress report, this project has been completed. Although the report did not specify which agencies, FIJ reviewed the online presence of the most relevant business-facing agencies based on the list of beneficiaries in the BERAP document.

The Ministry of Finance has no official website. The Ministry of Lands and Urban Development has a registered domain, but it leads to an error page.

The Ministry of Agriculture has no website, too. The Ministry of Works and Housing also has no online platform. The Urban Development Board does not have a functioning site. The page is broken.

These are some of the state’s most important business-facing agencies. Nearly all of them remain offline. There are no visible services, no functioning platforms and no sign of digital revamp.

Honourable mentions go to a few states where digital reform efforts are either stuck in vague language, buried in political silence or presented with minimal seriousness.

Osun State, for instance, has carried over its SABER commitments from 2023 into subsequent plans. However, the progress report offers little substance. It uses words like “new” or “critical” without explaining what has actually changed or how far the reforms have gone. The lack of specificity makes it difficult to assess whether any real progress has been made.

Rivers State, on the other hand, has no accessible digital documents related to SABER at the moment. This is likely tied to the state’s ongoing political crisis, which has disrupted normal governance routines and documentation.

There is also Oyo State. Its 2024 BERAP submission consists of a single scanned page. There are no detailed breakdowns, no timelines and no measurable indicators.

READ ALSO: REPORT: MDAs Spent N110bn Without Budgetary Approval in 2021

DÉJÀ VU? NIGERIA MAY BE ON TRACK TO FUMBLE ANOTHER WORLD BANK-BACKED REFORM

Nigeria has a long history of letting reform-focused, World Bank-funded programmes fizzle out. If recent signs from the SABER initiative are anything to go by, that pattern may be repeating itself.

SABER follows the States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) programme. The SFTAS is a $1.5 billion initiative launched in 2019 to push Nigeria’s 36 states towards better fiscal management.

SFTAS ran until 2024 and focused on nine core indicators. States only received funding after proving they had met specific reform targets. These included publishing budgets and audited financial statements online, passing debt laws, submitting quarterly debt reports and improving internal financial controls.

At its peak, the programme seemed to be working. By 2021, all states were publishing their budgets and audit reports online. Most had enacted fiscal responsibility laws, and many were submitting debt data regularly. For a brief moment, subnational transparency looked achievable.

READ ALSO: N’Assembly Received N172b in 6 Months — More Than Transportation, Land, Power, Communication, Water Resources Ministries Combined

But after the programme’s expiration, many states quietly slid back into old habits, despite binding legislations.

Just 22 days before the end of 2024, FIJ found that seven states — Rivers, Gombe, Kano, Kebbi, Ogun, Sokoto, and Borno — had still not published their Budget Implementation Reports (BIRs) for the third quarter of 2023. That quarter ended in September, and the law requires the reports to be public within 30 days.

The federal government hasn’t fared much better. FIJ also reported how Nigeria’s Consolidated Financial Statement for 2022, more than 18 months overdue, was still missing in 2024.

This isn’t a one-off problem. In 2015, Nigerian states secured a $250 million World Bank loan to expand access to clean water. Nearly a decade later, many communities still lack reliable water supply, and the project has been widely labelled a failure.

The second phase of the National Urban Water Sector Reform Project (NUWSRP), which focused on Lagos and Cross River, also ran into trouble. In 2016, the World Bank flagged a contractor for submitting fake certificates and barred them from future projects. That phase had a budget of $210 million.

NUWSRP III, launched in 2014 with another $250 million, did not fare much better. The Bank’s own review rated the project “moderately unsatisfactory”, blaming slow reforms, poor leadership and delays in implementation.

Other development partners are also losing confidence. The French Development Agency (AFD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) had at a point threatened to withdraw from Nigeria’s Digital Identification for Development (ID4D) project if the World Bank stepped back.

The project has already missed its original deadline, failed to meet core targets and narrowly avoided cancellation thanks to a six-month extension that ran to December 2024.

Even the African Development Bank (AfDB) voiced concerns. In one report, it described Nigeria’s Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ) programme as “problematic”.

That project was launched with $160 million from the AfDB and $50 million from the Africa Growing Together Fund. So far, the Bank says, it has failed to meet expectations.