No Nigerian state met a requirement to publish contracts in Open Contracting Data Standard format one year after a federal reform program ended, a World Bank review found, documenting a post-program decline in format compliance.
The State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability Program ran from 2018 to 2022. Nigeria’s federal government provided annual grants to states based on results in fiscal transparency, domestic revenue, spending efficiency and debt management. The program had a total allocation of $1.5 billion, comprising an initial $750 million and a further $750 million.
The review recorded on-time annual budget and audited financial statement disclosures in each of Nigeria’s 36 states by the program’s close. Thirty states were publishing budget implementation reports, three times the baseline number.
Procurement gains were less complete. The review says 18 states adopted e-procurement and about half published contract data. At program close, 18 states met the contract-publication requirement by using Open Contracting Data Standard format; one year later, none did. That count concerned format compliance: contract-award transparency remained above its pre-program level, and some states still posted procurement information, though sporadically. The review’s checks counted uploaded contracts, not whether they were valid or properly delivered.
The review identified the end of financial incentives, political resistance, foreign-exchange subscription fees, software costs, and electricity and internet access as barriers to maintaining e-procurement systems. A Nigeria Governors’ Forum survey for the first quarter of 2025 received responses from 16 states; five reported using e-procurement. Some ministries, departments and agencies had published fiscal 2025 procurement plans. The review said reports of e-procurement use were checked through system walkthroughs.
Nigeria’s 2007 Public Procurement Act calls for open competitive bidding and makes unclassified procurement records open to public inspection. The Bureau of Public Procurement operates a portal intended to expand access to procurement information.
The findings provide a specific measure of post-program performance alongside a broader argument made by BusinessDay’s Editorial Board on Oct. 30 that patronage can sustain weak institutions. BusinessDay’s Editorial Board linked patronage with officeholders’ access to public contracts and appointments, arguing that communities bear the fallout when services deteriorate. It recommended publishing contract and delivery records, independently checking project completion and tracking government outcomes. The World Bank review assessed state fiscal reforms and procurement; it did not test that broader thesis across Nigeria’s institutions.
