BudgIT Empowers Nigerian Citizens Through Open Data
Frivolous spending and opaque processes plague Nigeria’s federal budget. Civic startup BudgIT launched in 2011 to take on this challenge. The organization aims to make budgetary data from Nigeria’s Federal Government more accessible and understandable through digital technologies, including making PDFs machine-readable and designing visual representations of the data for those with low data literacy. Their campaign to drive awareness and analysis of the 2017 federal budget successfully reached 2.5 million Nigerians via online and offline platforms and engaged 25,000 citizens in the review process. This led to action on unnecessary budgetary items and “fake” projects. In one example, BudgIT exposed a 41 million naira (US$113,575) investment that claimed to be funding a non-existent youth center in Kebbi State. By encouraging careful public review of the budget, BudgIT mobilized civil outcry on public pay levels, resulting in a public servant salary cap. BudgIT’s successes demonstrate how improvements in data openness, accessibility, and literacy can build trust in public institutions and improve efficiency in public spending by reducing waste.
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