The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu has urged Civil Society Organizations to collaborate with the government on providing inclusive budgeting for Nigerians.
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He made the call at the launch of Budgeting Strategy and Presentation of research findings on gender inclusivity in the nation’s budgeting process by the International Budget Partnership, IBP, in Abuja.

The minister said that “The present administration had been deliberate on budgets that address the plight of Nigerians.” IBP Country Manager, Yinka Babalola, said IBP Nigeria is scaling up a new country strategy aimed at transforming public spending to benefit women’s health and support women farmers by advocating gender friendly tax policies to informal economic sector.

She said “What we are trying to do at IBP is to make public budget work for everyone and our theory of change is that if we can make budget work for the most marginalized who tend to be women and children, we will make it work for everyone.

“Women are the backbone of local communities, driving agricultural production and informal trade, yet they continue to face barriers to quality public services.

“For smallholder women farmers, who are central to Nigeria’s agricultural production, this means limited access to land, essential farm inputs, and public investments to support their livelihoods.”

As for the IBP strategy, she said “We are also looking beyond budget because to be able to spend, you have to raise taxes so we are looking at the entire process for raising public resources and spending them and we call this the public resource governance system.”
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The IBP Nigeria strategy aims to prioritize voices of smallholder women farmers, women in the informal economy, and community health advocates to ensure marginalized groups influence public finance decisions. “Public resources should work for everyone, especially those who have historically been left out of the decisions that shape how money is raised and spent,” Babalola added.

The IBP, according to her, is looking beyond just increasing budget for smallholder women farmers to long lasting transformational change through the ‘systems change strategy’ that prioritizes gender and intersectionality, that is taking into consideration groups like Persons Living with Disabilities, (PLWDs), and minority group among others.

Norwegian Ambassador to Nigeria, Svein Bæra, also highlighted the key role of taxation in improving public spending for the good of the populace.
He noted that while everyone needs to pay tax for overall development, “The tax system also needs to be fair and transparent. That’s the only way to make people trust in tax collections or the common good.”

Insisting that stable society is a critical part of driving change and domestic public finance is fundamental to financing SDGs, like education and health, Bæra said “The recent development in the world, with increasing aid budgets, makes this (tax), even more important. This means increasing revenue and reducing losses to elicit financial growth.

“At the National Tax Conference, here in Abuja, a few months ago, one of the recommendations was the following; the tax system be made more progressive to ensure that all taxpayers, especially big businesses and high net worth individuals, pay their fair share of taxes as also mentioned by Yinka Babalola in her welcome address. Another recommendation was a portion of the additional revenue could be redistributed to benefit the lower tax brackets and the most vulnerable populations, such as women, girls and persons with disabilities.”
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The ambassador also noted that his country, Norway, has funded part of IBP’s work related to research on gender and taxation.

“Norway puts great emphasis on being a long-term partner for our partner countries, particularly in Africa. And their efforts will prove the effectiveness of public institutions for public finance management of the economy,” he said.

Key focus areas of the strategy include enhancing agricultural service delivery for smallholder women farmers and improving maternal primary healthcare services in response to Nigeria’s high maternal mortality rate.

Additionally, IBP will present findings from a study titled “Gender Perspective Analysis of the Nigerian Informal Sector Tax Policy and Administration,” which reveals how informal tax systems disproportionately impact women traders, exacerbating economic inequality. The research was conducted in collaboration with various organizations, including the Association of Nigerian Women Business Network and the Society of Women in Taxation.

These insights are expected to guide advocacy for gender-responsive tax reforms aimed at reducing the burden on women in the informal sector while ensuring equitable contributions from others.
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