Finance Minister, Taiwo Oyedele has urged stakeholders to prioritise effective budget implementation, saying approval alone cannot deliver services to Nigerians.
The minister who spoke at the opening of the PULSE Summit 2026 in Abuja on Thursday, said Nigeria must move beyond approving budgets to ensuring that funds translated into tangible outcomes for citizens.
The summit, themed “From Approved Budgets to the Last Mile: Examining Budget Implementation in Nigeria,” was organised by the International Budget Partnership (IBP) Nigeria.
Oyedele described the difference between an approved budget and a delivered budget as one of the most important distinctions in public finance.
According to him, an approved budget is merely a document containing figures signed into law, but means little to citizens awaiting essential public services.
“An approved budget is a document; it is a set of numbers signed into law but it is worth nothing to the mother waiting for a functioning primary health centre, the child waiting for a teacher or the community waiting for safe drinking water,” the minister said.
He said that Nigeria had made genuine progress in budget preparation, classification and open data, but stressed that the major challenge remained ensuring that approved resources reached citizens.
He said that freeing resources was necessary but insufficient, noting that stronger institutional and accountability mechanisms were required to bridge the gap between budget approval and service delivery.
Also speaking, the Regional Director for Africa, DAI, Dr Joe Abah, said citizens experienced government through services rather than budget lines.
“A mother who arrives at a primary healthcare centre without essential medicines experiences frustration, not an appropriation.
“A child in an overcrowded classroom experiences the failure of the government to provide a conducive learning environment,” Abah said.
He called for stronger connections between budget releases, procurement, implementation and sustainable service delivery.
Abah said that budget approval should translate into actual releases to facilitate implementation and ensure that government programmes achieved their intended objectives.
The Country Director, IBP Nigeria, Olayinka Babalola, said that the summit was the product of the organisation’s nine years of engagement with community-based organisations across Nigeria.
She explained that PULSE, “Public Finance, Unlocking Last Mile Services”, initiative was designed to connect budget data with citizens’ experiences to improve public service delivery.
Babalola acknowledged improvements in Nigeria’s macroeconomic indicators, including GDP growth of 4.43 per cent and foreign reserves of 53.8 billion dollars.
She, however, said that the disconnect between improved macroeconomic indicators and outcomes at the micro level remained wide and persistent.
She called for greater citizen participation and independent oversight to ensure that public finance benefited all Nigerians, particularly marginalised groups.
