… BudgIT Urges Nigerians To Track Every Naira Sent To Councils
— Only 17 Of 191 Water, Sanitation Projects In Cross River, Kano Funded
Daud Olatunji
Local Government Councils received a staggering ₦3.04tn from the Federation Account Allocation Committee between January and June 2026, but a BudgIT Foundation analysis has raised fresh concerns about whether public funds are translating into tangible services and infrastructure at the grassroots.
The civic-tech organisation has consequently urged Nigerians to move beyond simply knowing how much money their councils receive and begin tracking how the funds are budgeted, released, spent and ultimately converted into projects and services.
The call came against the backdrop of a separate BudgIT analysis which revealed that ₦21bn out of ₦26.16bn budgeted for 191 water, sanitation and hygiene projects in Cross River and Kano states in 2025 was not released.
According to the organisation, only 17 of the 191 projects captured in its analysis received funding, leaving communities facing the prospect of having projects approved on paper but not implemented on the ground.
The disclosure was contained in BudgIT’s policy brief, “Tracking the Naira, Tracking the Taps,” which examined public financing for WASH interventions and the extent to which approved projects actually received funding.
BudgIT said the findings exposed the danger of treating budget documents as evidence that communities would eventually receive the services contained in them.
“Communities cannot drink a budget document,” the organisation declared.
It stressed that the real measure of government spending was not the size of an appropriation but whether the money was released and translated into functioning infrastructure.
₦3.04tn at councils’ disposal
The ₦3.04tn allocation to Local Governments in the first six months of 2026 places substantial public resources at the disposal of the tier of government closest to ordinary Nigerians.
Under the Fourth Schedule of the Nigerian Constitution, Local Government Councils have responsibilities covering areas including local roads, markets, refuse disposal, public conveniences and participation in the provision and maintenance of primary education and health services.
The scale of the funds therefore makes scrutiny of Local Government finances particularly important, especially for residents who rely directly on council-provided infrastructure and services.
BudgIT said citizens should be asking basic but critical questions about their councils’ finances.
“How much was received? What was budgeted? What was spent? Which projects were executed and where are they located?” the organisation asked.
It has directed citizens to its me.budgit.org platform, where they can check monthly allocations to States and Local Governments, examine projects listed for their communities and see the amounts budgeted for them.
₦21bn disappears from WASH funding pipeline
The WASH analysis provides a striking example of why approved budgets alone may not tell the full story of public spending.
BudgIT said ₦26.16bn was budgeted in 2025 for 191 WASH projects across Cross River and Kano states.
However, only ₦5.15bn was released, leaving approximately ₦21bn unreleased.
The situation was particularly pronounced in the two states.
In Cross River, only seven out of 72 budgeted WASH projects received funding.
In Kano, just 10 of 119 projects were funded.
In total, only 17 of the 191 projects received funding, according to the analysis.
The organisation said the figures demonstrated a major gap between government commitments contained in budget documents and what communities could actually receive.
‘Communities cannot drink budget documents’
BudgIT said the failure to release approved funds was especially troubling in the WASH sector because access to safe water and sanitation has direct implications for public health.
The organisation cited an estimate that about 73 per cent of Nigeria’s diarrhoeal and enteric disease burden is associated with unsafe WASH access.
It argued that communities should not be left with budgetary promises when the infrastructure required to protect public health remains unfunded.
“Communities cannot drink a budget document,” BudgIT said, stressing that budget approval was only one stage in the journey from public allocation to public benefit.
It said citizens needed to follow the money through the entire chain — from allocation to release, implementation and eventual delivery.
From allocation to impact
For Local Governments, the ₦3.04tn received through FAAC in six months raises questions about what residents can actually see on the ground.
The allocation itself is a fiscal fact; however, its impact depends on how the money is budgeted, released, spent and accounted for.
For ordinary residents, government is ultimately experienced through tangible services — usable roads, functioning markets, effective waste disposal, public conveniences, primary healthcare, education infrastructure and other community facilities.
BudgIT said citizens therefore had a responsibility to scrutinise public spending and demand explanations when money was allocated but corresponding projects or services were not delivered.
The organisation’s campaign seeks to make financial information accessible to citizens so that they can follow government money beyond budget announcements.
It encouraged residents to use its online platform to examine their State and Local Government allocations and identify projects listed for their communities.
Budget approval is not project delivery
The WASH findings underscore a broader accountability question: when a project appears in a budget, does that mean the community will actually get it?
BudgIT’s analysis suggests that the answer depends on what happens after appropriation.
A project must move from budget approval to fund release, from release to implementation and from implementation to actual service delivery before residents can benefit.
For citizens, the organisation said, accountability should therefore not end with the publication of a budget.
Rather, residents should verify whether the projects listed in official documents exist, whether work has commenced, whether they have been completed and whether the facilities are serving the intended communities.
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