THE International Budget Partnership (IBP) Nigeria, has announced the inaugural PULSE Summit 2026, an initiative designed to critically examine the gap between approved government budgets and actual public service delivery.

IBP Nigeria Country Director, Olayinka Babalola, unveiled the summit themed “From Approved Budgets to the Last Mile,” during a media briefing yesterday in Abuja ahead of the summit scheduled of 3 September 2026.

Babalola explained that the summit, Public Finance: Unlocking Last Mile Services (PULSE), aims to uncover what happens between an approved budget and the actual service a citizen receives.

She said “We often talk about how much was budgeted or spent, but the citizen experiences public finance very differently.

“For people, it becomes real when medicines are available at the health centre.

“PULSE is about understanding what happens between the budget on paper and that experience at the last mile.”

Stressing the core philosophy driving the initiative, she insisted that “approval does not mean released. Released does not mean spent and spent does not automatically mean delivered.”

To identify these bottlenecks, the Strategy and Policy Lead at IBP, Onyekachi Chukwu, noted that the summit will utilise ‘sector-specific labs’ to foster dialogue among all stakeholders, including government representatives and frontline workers.

Chukwu noted that “It is easier for us to make speculations outside when we see certain figures, but if we do not understand clearly where the chain has actually broken, it is difficult to start fixing those problems.” citing instances where only a fraction of appropriated funds is released added that the summit is a continuous loop, where commitments made are tracked into the next cycle.

“When you identify where the chain is breaking, it is easier to fix. The commitments we are tracking will inform the theme for next year,” he said.

Also speaking, the Senior Programme Coordinator at IBP, Chika Okoh, highlighted the role of data in uncovering execution failures, particularly at the primary healthcare level.

Okoh revealed that while past data often pointed to implementation blockages, current evidence shows major gaps around fund releases and accountability at the grassroots.

She stated that “Even though funds might be released and get to the grassroots level, there are still blockages and service delivery failures where persons responsible might not deliver on their expected roles.”

She charged the media to investigate these issues to raise visibility, adding that a tracker would monitor shared responsibilities post-summit.

“This becomes advocacy anchored on the needs of the people and the real issues,” Okoh adds.