‘You’ve been inconsistent’ — BudgIT asks NBS to publish data on FAAC disbursement

BudgIT Foundation, a civic-tech organisation, has called on the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to publish data on FAAC allocations in Nigeria from March to August 2021. 

BudgIT said this in a statement issued by Iyanu Fatoba, its communications associate, on Wednesday.

The organisation said the publication will aid “public oversight and provide CSOs and analysts with the opportunity to analyse revenue generation at the subnational level while holding respective representatives to the standards of fiscal responsibility.” 

Calling on the NBS and the office of the statistician-general, BudgIT said that the timely release of data by the bureau had been an integral part of its advocacy within Nigeria’s civic-tech space.

“Publications of specific public data on the NBS portal have not been consistent in the last few months; case in point – data on FAAC allocations and disbursements to state governments from March-August 2021,” the statement reads.

“Following this development, we wrote twice to the Office of the Statistician-General to request information on the delay; however, we have not received any official response from the bureau as of the time of this press statement, despite the acknowledgement of the letters we sent.

“We want to reiterate that the timely publication of public data is instrumental to our engagement on fiscal resource governance and crucial to ensuring that an average Nigerian can access public data in a timely and simplified manner.” 

The organisation also encouraged citizens to take up the responsibility of demanding accountability from the government.  

“We also urge the citizens to not relent in demanding a government where the publication of public information is timely and accessible to everyone,” the statement adds.

In August, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Simon B. Harry to replace Yemi Kale as the new statistician-general of the federation.

During his two-term tenure, Kale was praised for his timely reports on socio-economic data and turning the bureau into a data powerhouse and one of the few agencies that changed the face of civil service in Nigeria.