By Tordue Salem

ABUJA—The Civil Resource Development and Documentation Centre, CIRDDOC, Nigeria, and other civil rights agencies have rated Nigeria below Liberia and Ghana on transparent and effective budgeting.

CIRDOCC is an independent, non-governmental and not-profit organisation established in 1996 for the protection and promotion of human rights and strengthening of civil society.

Executive Director of CIRDDOC, Mrs. Oby Nwankwo, who anchored a research of 85 countries’ budgeting system, stated that “the findings of the 2010 survey were
based on collected and verified information.

“The survey simply measured the overall commitment of 85 Countries to transparency”.

According to CIRDDOC’s key findings, as presented at a press conference by its Programme Advisor/Researcher, Engr. Ralph Ndigwe, “Nigeria’s Open Budget Index score is 18 out of 100, which is less than half the average score (42) for the 94 countries surveyed”.