In January 2026, indigenous contractors in Nigeria protested over unpaid capital projects for 2024, claiming the government owed over N4 trillion. A multi-ministerial committee set up by President Bola Tinubu in December 2025 reported N1.5 trillion in owed payments. After a government announcement of a N152 billion payment, contractors received only about N20 billion. The crisis highlighted the need for a transparent and integrated public financial management system.
The current fragmented system in Nigeria treats budgeting, procurement, contract management, accounting, and payment as separate processes. This leads to information gaps, making it difficult to track payments and verify what is owed. A project can be in the budget without procurement planning, and a contract can be varied without recognizing the financial impact. The government has since cleared over N700 billion in owed payments after a laborious verification exercise.
Two existing platforms in Nigeria can be integrated to improve public financial management. The Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) provides a backbone for budget execution, commitments, accounting, treasury, and payments. The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) is accelerating digitalization with its Digital Submission Portal and building an e-Government Procurement (e-GP) system.
The strategic imperative is to connect these systems into one integrated public expenditure architecture. Integration must enforce two simple principles: no procurement without an approved budget and procurement plan, and no payment without a valid procurement and contract record. A Treasury Circular of July 31, 2026, bars MDAs from awarding contracts without a Warrant or Authority to Incur Expenditure covering the full sum, generated from GIFMIS.
The next reform must make it automated, verifying budget provision and warrant balance when an MDA initiates procurement, and verifying contract sum, previous payments, balance, and performance certification when payment is requested. BPP's May 2026 guidelines require BPP's Certificate of No Objection for all variation orders and scope modifications, and publication within 30 days.
The link between procurement plans and cash management is crucial. Consolidated procurement plans can help the Treasury forecast when commitments will fall due. The July 2026 circular requires MDAs to submit annual cash plans with quarterly updates. Linking those to live procurement data would turn them from intentions to evidence-based forecasts.
Institutional collaboration is essential for the governance reform. BPP must remain regulator, while the Office of the Accountant-General must remain custodian of budget execution, accounting, and payments. The Budget Office belongs in the loop too, having co-developed a monitoring framework with BPP. The objective is interoperability, not duplication, with transparency built into the system.
Key points
- The Nigerian government aims to integrate procurement with the entire public financial management cycle for transparency and accountability.
