BudgIT co-founder Onigbinde appointed advisor to Nigeria minister

BudgIT co-founder Oluseun Onigbinde has been appointed as technical advisor to Nigeria’s state for budget and finance minister Clem Agba.

“Friends, I have accepted to take up an advisory role underwritten by an international development agency for an initial period of six months,” Onigbinde said in a Medium post.

Consequently, Onigbinde said he has taken a break from his role at BudgIT and focused on his new responsibility.

In the technical advisory role, he will “be supporting the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, along with the issues of budget reform, development planning, and revenue growth.”

He explained that his new role is similar to a task Joseph Agunbiade, BudgIT co-founder and he worked on between 2013–14, under the DFID-FEPAR program for the National Assembly Budget and Research Office.

“I see this as an adventure considering an accepted steep curve on public sector structure,” Onigbinde said.

BudgIT, which he headed before now, demands transparency, citizen engagement and accountability most especially in public finance from government officials.

The BudgIT co-founder, however, said he remains loyal to his “values of appreciating the right of every citizen to ask the hard questions that public resources must be accounted for and that civic spaces and individual rights must be keenly protected.”