The Federal Government is planning a central transparency portal through which Nigerians can track allocations, budgets, development plans, and audited accounts of the 774 local governments, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, said.

Oyedele disclosed this while presenting the government’s assessment of ‘Nigeria’s Reforms Scorecard: Benefits, Costs and Harms Prevented’ in Abuja yesterday.

The Minister said the proposed platform aimed to improve accountability in the management of resources shared to states and local governments.

The initiative comes against the backdrop of a sharp increase in allocations to the sub-national governments following the removal of petrol subsidy and foreign exchange reforms.

According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, the three tiers of government shared N2.036 trillion from the Federation Account in March 2026, with states receiving N657.596 billion and local government councils N468.826 billion.

In June 2026, the combined allocation to states and local governments rose further, with states receiving N838.208 billion and local councils N591.390 billion from the N2.551 trillion shared by the Federation Account Allocation Committee.

But Oyedele said the increased flow of resources would translate into better living conditions only if Nigerians could see what sub-national governments were doing with the money.

He said the proposed portal would allow citizens to select any local government and access its development plan, annual budget and audited accounts, thereby creating a direct link between public allocations and projects delivered at the grassroots.

“This is where people feel the impact of government the most,” the minister said.

He stressed the need for greater transparency at the state and local government levels.

The Federal Government, he added, was working with the sub-national governments to improve transparency and accountability. However, Nigeria’s federal system limited how far the Federal Government could dictate how states and local governments spent their allocations.

Under the country’s federal arrangement, Oyedele explained, the Federal Government, states and local governments constitute separate tiers of government, with states and local governments having authority over the deployment of their statutory revenues.

He said the proposed system was therefore intended less as a mechanism for federal control than as a way to give citizens access to information on how public resources were being deployed.

The minister’s position assumes added significance as monthly Federation Account allocations have risen substantially since the economic reforms began.

For instance, in February 2026, the Federal Government, states and local governments shared N1.894 trillion, with N651.525 billion going to states and N456.467 billion to local councils.

In November 2025, states received N601.731 billion while local governments received N445.266 billion from the N1.928 trillion distributed by FAAC.

The increased allocations have, however, heightened demands for evidence of corresponding improvements in infrastructure and public services at the grassroots.

Oyedele said the Federal Government was also encouraging states to adopt similar transparency measures.
He said discussions with state governments had already begun, with some indicating their willingness to develop comparable mechanisms for reporting finances and spending.

The proposed portal, when established, would potentially provide a consolidated picture of public finances across the 774 local government areas, including the resources available to them, projects contained in their budgets and the extent to which those projects were implemented.

The initiative forms part of the government’s broader argument that the reforms have expanded fiscal space for the three tiers of government.

The government said that between June 2023 and December 2025, reforms generated N15.8 trillion in additional resources for the Federation, of which N10.4 trillion accrued to states and local governments, while the Federal Government received N5.4 trillion.

However, the Minister acknowledged that the Federal Government could not itself determine whether states and local governments used the additional resources effectively.

He said accountability would ultimately require citizens to have access to reliable information with which to assess their governments.

The proposed portal could therefore shift the reform debate from the size of monthly allocations to the more consequential question of what Nigerians receive in return for those resources.

With billions of naira now flowing monthly to the sub-national governments, the effectiveness of the proposed transparency framework will depend on whether citizens can move beyond knowing how much their governments receive to establishing what is actually delivered with the money.