‘The US is right’: Nigerian economists pile on as America flags Nigeria’s fiscal transparency failures

Nigeria’s own economists are siding with Washington. Following the US Department of State’s 2026 Fiscal Transparency Report — which declared Nigeria was making no significant progress on budget disclosure, expenditure reporting and audit independence — local economists have backed the assessment, according to The Punch.

The US report found that while Nigeria made some fiscal documents publicly available, they did not present a comprehensive picture of government revenues and expenditures, and raised concerns about discrepancies between the country’s approved budget and actual revenue and expenditure recorded during implementation.

Nigerian economists cited systemic leakage, opacity and weak expenditure controls as the root causes — arguing that Nigeria does not have a revenue crisis but a governance crisis, with rising inflows consistently failing to translate into tangible public goods.

BudgIT chief executive Seun Onigbinde noted that the government lacks fidelity to a time-bound budget process, with multiple budgets running concurrently and outstanding payments stretching back to 2023, while capital projects — the components that build roads, schools and hospitals — receive the lowest priority.

President Tinubu has repeatedly cited fiscal discipline as a cornerstone of his administration’s economic agenda. The US recommended six corrective steps including publishing the executive budget proposal online, aligning actual spending with approved budgets, and strengthening audit institution independence.