By Ibrahim Kado
The Adamawa government with support from United States Agency International Development (USAID) State2State Activity, has developed a budget manual for its Local Government Areas and Ministry of Local Government Affairs.
Speaking at the workshop in Hong LGA on Thursday, Ms Suzanne Myada, the State2State Team Lead said the significance of having a budget manual was to standardise budget processes.
“The budget manual helps government to adhere to good practices of ensuring accountability, transparency and effectiveness.
“The manual will also help in training and retraining of staff and I want you to take this exercise seriously and sustain it because, State2State’s project is ending in August 2025,” she said.
Myada urged the ministry for local government areas to step down the training to the remaining 17 LGAs.
Mr Iheanyi Iheke, State2State LG Manager, said the objectives of developing the manual were to make public financial management accountable and transparent for residents.
He urged the participants to always be sensitive to avoid things that might lead to conflicts in the budget and promote participation as well as social inclusion in budget processes.
According to him, some of the challenges currently faced is delay in budget release and residents having no access to the budget among others.
He added that with the manual, all the challenges would be addressed, and a lot of successes would be achieved when the manual is implemented.
In his address, the Permanent Secretary Ministry for LGAs Affairs, Mr Musa Kiri, appreciated USAID for the support and advised the officials to apply the knowledge acquired.
Kiri , represented by Madam Lydia Ularamu, a Director in the ministry, said the exercise was timely, especially with the local government autonomy for effective service delivery.
Nuhu Bakari, a participant, also described the manual as good for development at the grassroots and timely.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop was conducted for the focal councils of State2State: Yola-North, Mubi-North, Gombi and Numan, to be implemented across the 21 councils of the state.
