Fiscal transparency: Group commends Budget ministry

The Open Government Partnership (OGP) has commended the Ministry of Budget and National Planning for its commitment in leading its Fiscal Transparency and Accountability (FTA) Working Group.

OGP is a global initiative aimed at promoting true democratic governments by entrenching transparency and accountability principles in governance.

Salisu Haiba, Spokesman for the ministry, said in a statement that the OGP National Coordinator, Ms Juliet Ibekeku-Nwagu, made the commendation at the first meeting of the FTA working group in 2018 hosted by the ministry.

He said the meeting was chaired by the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, who was the designated OGP State Actor and incoming co-chair.

In her remarks, the minister told the stakeholders to pay more attention to milestones and challenges in the Fiscal Transparency and Accountability ahead of the meeting.

The meeting of the National Steering Committee will take place later in the month.

Ahmed was represented by Dr Ann Nzegwu, the OGP Focal person in the ministry, who is also the co-chair FTA working group and the ministry’s Focal person.

According to her, one of the cardinal commitments of the OGP is to promote citizen’s participation in budget circle.

The minister said that the key commitments of the OGP as contained in the 2017 report were to enhance transparency in the extractive sector and improve efficiency and effectiveness of the tax system.

Other commitments of the group, she said were improving ease of doing business and Nigeria’s ranking on the World Bank Doing Business Ranking Index.

Nigeria joined the OGP participating countries in 2016.