The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is training fiscal officers in all 36 States, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) to submit their fiscal returns digitally, in a bid to replace a largely manual process that has slowed the flow of reliable public finance data.
Through its Statistics Department, the Bank is rolling out a digital platform for the Sub-National Fiscal Survey, with the aim of improving the timeliness, accuracy, consistency and precision of the data used for monetary, fiscal and wider economic policy decisions.
Speaking at the Sub-national Fiscal Statistics Stakeholders’ engagement held recently in Abeokuta, Ogun State, the Director of the Statistics Department, Dr Usman Moses Okpanachi, said the initiative would strengthen the information chain linking fiscal transactions in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and Local Governments to evidence-based policy making.
Dr Okpanachi explained that reliable fiscal statistics were critical to sound economic management. They enable governments to assess revenue performance, expenditure patterns, financing needs and fiscal pressures, and give policymakers a clearer picture of public-sector activity and its implications for aggregate demand, liquidity, borrowing conditions and inflation.
He said timely, reliable data had become increasingly important as the CBN strengthened its forward-looking, data-dependent monetary policy framework and moved towards a more explicit inflation-targeting regime.
He noted that the largely manual, twice-yearly Sub-National Fiscal Survey faced challenges with timeliness, logistics, validation and processing.
According to him, digitalisation would address these constraints by standardising data entry, improving validation, simplifying submissions, enabling better monitoring and traceable corrections, and supporting a transition to more frequent and sustainable quarterly rendition of returns.
Dr Okpanachi emphasised that technology would complement, rather than replace, sound record-keeping, proper reconciliation and professional judgement.
He urged States and Local Governments to anchor implementation in timeliness, integrity and continuity by ensuring prompt submission, proper validation and reconciliation of data, and the appointment of designated focal officers to ensure institutional continuity.
He noted that the initiative’s success would ultimately be measured by more complete and consistent returns, faster submissions, improved validation and better fiscal information for decision-making.
He assured stakeholders of the Bank’s continued technical and operational support through its Branches and the Statistics Department.
The nationwide engagement, which commenced on October 26, 2026, is expected to cover the remaining States by December 4, with the FCT scheduled for December 9 and 10.
The practical sessions enable State and Local Government fiscal officers to use the digital questionnaire, understand validation requirements, and practise submission and correction procedures.
As of November 6, 2026, 16 States and their Local Governments had been covered, with strong government support and attendance reaching 100 per cent in almost all the States visited.
Following the exercise, trained officers are expected to cascade the knowledge within their institutions and begin submitting returns through the digital platform, while the Statistics Department consolidates implementation outcomes into a national report.
The initiative, part of the CBN’s broader data architecture and transformation agenda, is expected to strengthen fiscal data for State and Local Government planning, budgeting and policy evaluation, while providing more timely and reliable information for monetary, financial and fiscal policy decisions.
