Nigeria has failed the United States’ minimum fiscal transparency requirements for the second consecutive year.
The US Department of State said Nigeria made no significant progress in addressing weaknesses in its public financial management and disclosure practices.
The finding was contained in the 2026 Fiscal Transparency Report, released on August 11 after reviewing 140 governments and entities for the 2025 fiscal year.
Nigeria was among 67 governments that failed the assessment. Only 73 met the minimum requirements.
Of the 67 countries that failed, 14 made significant progress in addressing their shortcomings. Nigeria was not among them.
The report identified weaknesses in Nigeria’s budget preparation and implementation, public auditing and procurement transparency.
It said the Federal Government failed to publish its executive budget proposal within a reasonable timeframe.
The US also found that Nigeria’s budget documents did not provide a substantially complete picture of government revenues and spending.
According to the report, actual government revenues and expenditures also did not reasonably match the figures contained in the approved budget.
The assessment comes amid concerns over off-budget spending and fiscal discipline.
The International Monetary Fund’s 2026 Article IV consultation estimated about ₦8.8 trillion, equivalent to two per cent of GDP, in unrecorded off-budget public spending. The Nigerian government has rejected the claim.
Nigeria, however, received credit for publicly disclosing information on its debt obligations, including major debts owed by state-owned enterprises.
The US report also criticised Nigeria’s supreme audit institution, saying it fell short of international standards on independence and did not publish enough substantive reports.
Public procurement transparency was another major concern.
The report said information on government procurement contracts was not sufficiently accessible to the public, despite legal provisions guiding the award of natural resource contracts and licences.
For resource-rich countries, the US transparency standards require governments to disclose details such as the location of concessions, resources involved, contract duration and companies awarded the contracts.
Nigeria was also praised for having a sound legal framework for its sovereign wealth fund, including provisions covering its funding and withdrawals.
The US Department of State said fiscal transparency is essential to effective financial management, investor confidence and economic sustainability.
It stressed that the assessment is not a corruption ranking.
According to the department, failing the transparency test does not automatically mean a government is significantly corrupt. Likewise, passing the assessment does not necessarily indicate low corruption.
Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda were among the African countries that met the minimum requirements.
India, Indonesia, Morocco and Mauritius also passed the assessment.
The US said countries can move up or down in the rankings as transparency requirements change and governments either strengthen or weaken their financial management systems.
The 2026 assessment introduced a tougher requirement for governments to publicly disclose the terms of sovereign loans to foreign borrowers, including liabilities and collateralised assets.
The review was based on information from US diplomatic missions, government agencies, international organisations and civil society groups.
