The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), Thursday, says he is eager to sign a third National Action Plan on the Open Government Partnership targeted at fighting corruption.
According to a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the President revealed this when he received a delegation from the Open Government Partnership Support Unit, led by its Chief Executive Officer, Dr Sanjay Pradhan, at the State House, Abuja.
The statement is titled ‘Our benefits from joining open government partnership, by President Buhari.’
President Buhari said when he committed Nigeria to the membership of the OGP at the London Anti-Corruption Summit, he was clear about the role that the initiative would play in the fight against corruption, and since that time, “We have developed and implemented two National Action Plans on the Open Government Partnership.
“By next month (in August), I will sign the third Action Plan, which is in the final stages of development. I am eager to sign the document so that we can continue to sustain the progress of reforms that we have recorded in the past six years of implementation.”
Speaking further, the President outlined some of the successes that the country has recorded since it began to implement the Open Government Partnership in 2016.
Buhari said, “Our budgeting processes have become more open, citizens-centred and participatory. In accordance with the objective of fiscal transparency, all stakeholders, including the public are involved in the country’s budget making process, have access to the details of our budgets, and have the opportunity to make inputs into it.
“As a proof of our progress, Nigeria was ranked among the best improved countries for transparency in the latest global Open Budget Survey.
“We have made significant progress in the beneficial ownership transparency in Nigeria. We produced a roadmap of Beneficial Ownership Reporting in 2016.
“By December 2019, we established Africa’s first Beneficial Ownership Register in the extractive industry. In 2020, we amended our laws to expand Beneficial Ownership Reporting to all sectors of the economy.”
On his part, the OGP CEO, Pradhan, recalled that he was there in London in 2016, when President Buhari committed to the 77-member organization as Number 70, and described Nigeria as “an excellent performer, one of the most open across the partnership.”
He lauded Nigeria for opening up its budget processes, contracts, procurement, and the extractive sector.
