BudgIT flags climate finance gaps, urges open budgets to secure Nigeria’s future

By Ukpono Ukpong

28 February 2026

Economy

The BudgIT Foundation has identified major funding and transparency gaps in Nigeria’s climate finance architecture, calling for open and accountable budget processes as critical tools to safeguard the country’s economic and environmental future.

Speaking at a stakeholder roundtable on Strengthening Fiscal Sustainability and Climate Action Through Open Budgets in Abuja, Deputy Country Director, Vahyala Kwaga, said the initiative was driven by growing climate risks and weak accountability in public spending.

“The world in which we live is one that is constantly being buffeted by different natural and ecological occurrences,” he said, noting that “the impacts of climate change will disproportionately affect us because we do not have the mitigation and adaptation and resilience measures in place.”

Kwaga explained that the session was convened to produce an advocacy and position paper for federal and state governments on improving climate-related spending and governance.

He stressed that “there’s a significant funding gap, there’s a significant transparency and accountability gap, urging civil society groups to work “collaboratively, collectively” to demand better information and implementation.

On citizen engagement, he said BudgIT leverages media platforms and its service delivery arm, TRACA, to drive awareness.

“Where you have a political system that citizens are not involved, that citizens do not participate, decisions would be made without your input,” he warned, adding that climate change affects “poor and vulnerable people even more.”

Highlighting grey areas in the budget cycle, Kwaga listed three key concerns. “One, there is no proper tagging of climate-specific finance line items. Two, there seems to be some fragmentation…

Lastly, in terms of reporting, there really isn’t timely, adequate, disaggregated reporting,” he said, though he acknowledged that some states provide more detailed budget implementation reports than the federal government.

Senior Programmes Officer, Alice Adedayo, described the project as an evolving climate finance track rather than a fixed-term plan.

“It’s something that will keep evolving. It’s a continuous thing,” she said, revealing that “between 2021 and 2022, we recorded an inflow of about 2.5 billion dollars of climate finance, which are mostly public debt finance.”

Adedayo said the goal is to mainstream climate action into public finance at both federal and subnational levels.

“We want to see how we can mainstream climate action into public finance,” she said, adding that BudgIT plans to work with CSOs to ensure budgets are properly tagged under the national chart of accounts for easier tracking.

She also cautioned against worsening Nigeria’s debt profile in the name of climate action.

“We also want to see a situation whereby there is no expense of increasing public debts while we’re trying to mitigate climate action and adaptation. So the key is also economic security for Nigeria as well,” she stated.

Leading BudgIT’s Natural Resource and Climate Governance team, Enebio Palua, said open budgets remain central to fiscal sustainability.

“Open budgets are processes that allows transparency, accountability, and participation in the budget process,” he said, noting that delays and irregularities in Nigeria’s budget cycle have weakened implementation, including climate projects.

Palua called for reforms to restore the traditional budget calendar. “There is need for reform. There is need for reform,” he stressed, urging earlier release of key documents such as the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and timely passage of budgets before the start of each fiscal year.

He further demanded regular reporting and publication of audited financial statements.

“Nigeria’s last financial statement is audited. We call on the government to ensure that these financial statements are released,” he said, warning that weak reporting signals to development partners that Nigeria may not be fully ready for accountable climate finance.

On the role of citizens and the media, Palua was direct: “Get involved, get involved.” He encouraged participation in town halls and use of BudgIT’s tracking platforms to monitor state and local government projects, arguing that when governments know citizens are watching, “they will be much more responsive towards showing that they are doing their job in the right way.”