The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has begun digitalising sub-national fiscal data reporting across the 36 states, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the country’s 774 local government areas (LGAs), in a move aimed at improving the accuracy, reliability and timeliness of data used in economic policymaking.
The initiative will replace the largely manual system of collecting and processing fiscal information with a digital platform designed to standardise submissions, strengthen validation and enable more frequent reporting by state and local governments.
The CBN also plans to move the Sub-National Fiscal Survey from its current twice-yearly schedule to quarterly submissions. This is expected to give policymakers more up-to-date information on government revenue, expenditure, financing needs and fiscal pressures.
Speaking at a recent Sub-National Fiscal Statistics Stakeholders’ Engagement in Abeokuta, Ogun State, the Director of the CBN’s Statistics Department, Dr Usman Moses Okpanachi, said the exercise was part of the bank’s broader efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s economic data systems and support evidence-based policymaking.
He said reliable and timely fiscal statistics were essential to effective economic management, enabling policymakers to assess public-sector finances and their implications for aggregate demand, liquidity, borrowing conditions and inflation.
Okpanachi said the quality of fiscal data was especially important as the CBN strengthened its forward-looking, data-dependent monetary policy framework and moved towards a more explicit inflation-targeting regime.
The existing manual approach to the survey had caused delays in submissions, logistical difficulties, validation challenges and lengthy processing times, he said.
The new platform is expected to address these problems by providing a structured reporting framework, simplifying submissions, standardising entries and improving the tracking of returns and corrections.
It is also intended to strengthen the link between fiscal transactions by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), state governments and local authorities, and the production of reliable statistics for national policymaking.
Okpanachi stressed that technology would not remove the need for proper record-keeping, reconciliation and professional judgement. He urged state and local government authorities to support the transition with sound institutional practices and to ensure that data were validated and reconciled before submission.
He also called on participating governments to appoint designated focal officers to coordinate reporting and maintain continuity as trained personnel introduce the system in their institutions.
The initiative’s success, he said, would be assessed by improvements in the completeness and consistency of fiscal returns, faster submissions, stronger validation and the availability of more reliable information for economic decision-making.
The CBN will provide technical and operational support through its branches nationwide and the Statistics Department, he added.
The nationwide stakeholders’ engagement began on October 26, 2026, and is expected to reach the remaining states by December 4. The FCT is scheduled to take part on December 9 and 10.
As of November 6, the CBN had conducted the exercise in 16 states and their respective local governments. The bank reported strong government support, with attendance reaching 100 per cent in almost all the states visited.
Practical sessions are designed to train fiscal officers to use the digital questionnaire, meet data-validation requirements and submit and correct information through the platform.
After the training, participating officers are expected to share their knowledge with relevant colleagues and begin submitting fiscal returns electronically. The Statistics Department will then consolidate the results of the nationwide exercise into a national implementation report.
The programme forms part of the CBN’s broader data and institutional transformation agenda, with implications for fiscal planning, budgeting and policy evaluation at state and local government levels.
The bank expects the digital system to provide more timely information on government finances and strengthen the statistical basis for monetary policy, financial-stability assessments and wider fiscal and economic management.
