Irrespective of a country’s level of development, public procurement plays a pivotal role in shaping the efficacy of public service delivery and fostering a conducive environment for inclusive growth. In the Nigerian context, deficiencies in public procurement have contributed in part to a poor level of governance and weak state capacity. This is due to the leakages, inefficiencies, and corruption that characterize government procurement. Although quantifying the scale of loss due to inadequate procurement process is challenging, Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency estimates contract and procurement fraud at approximately 2.9 trillion naira ($7.6 billion) over the period 2018 to 2020, which stood at a staggering 10% of the total budgetary allocations for that period.
This Commentary was first published by the Brookings Institution. READ MORE
