The Connected Development (CODE) has said that its ‘Follow The Money’ (FTM) initiative, saved the Federal Government and the citizens N477 million through blocking financial leakages in funded rural community projects.
The Chief Executive, CODE and founder, Follow the Money, Hamzat Lawal, said this in Abuja during the formal launch of a report, “Rebuilding Trust in Institutions” and the presentation of the 2019 Annual Report of the organization.
This as he also said that the FTM in 2019, tracked N1,277,500,000 ($3.5m) projects budgeted for in 59 grassroots communities.
“Our ‘Follow The Money’ initiative advocates and tracks government/international aid spending in health, WASH, and education across grassroots rural communities to ensure and promote open government and service delivery.
“Since 2012, CODE has tracked an estimate of $113.6m in budget sums for projects, across 181 communities in over 25 Nigerian states, improving over four million rural lives,” Lawal said.
He said that lack of transparency, poor social accountability, information gap, weak social contracts, literacy, citizenry apathy and distrust in government, are entrenched governance challenges in Nigeria.
“CODE is bridging the information gap between citizens and the government by providing information on government budgets, tackling financial leakages and bringing governance closer to the people at the grassroots. We do this by empowering citizens with the knowledge, skills NIGG and capacity to demand for the provision of quality public services in their communities.
“Consequently, essential development projects, previously abandoned or which otherwise would not have been implemented, are being restarted and completed, accelerating social development in these regions, fighting inequality and promoting inclusive development,” he said.
Lawal said that understanding that citizens’ apathy was increasing and the government continued to fall short of expectations, thus CODE’s overall objective in year 2019 was to make a significant difference in increasing citizens and government’s consciousness towards rebuilding trust.
He said, “In 2019, Follow The Money tracked N1,277,500,000 ($3.5m) budgeted for projects in 59 grassroots communities-calling for improved first-mile health infrastructure and services, end demanding that a state of emergency be declared on education because of the alarming increase in the number of out-of-school children and campaigning for communities to access safe clean water, we impacted over two million lives.
“We further saved the Nigerian people and the government the sum of N477m by blocking financial leakages in funded rural community projects.
“Our work gained global recognition when Follow The Money emerged winner of the 2019 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Mobilizer Award and also won the Council of Europe’s Democracy Innovation Award as the initiative advancing the cause of democracy,” the CODE boss said.
On challenges, he said “the recurring challenges that our team continue to face are threats for exposing misappropriation of funds, poor access to data to enable tracking of government funds, security issues in North-East of Nigeria, and limited funds in reaching more grassroots communities.
“We, however, remain dogged in promoting a sustainable FTM model to ensure that true democracy is achieved, where citizens are empowered in every sense and their collective voices are heard. In hindsight, it can be said that CODE experienced yet another year of growth and influence.”
Lawal also said that the comprehensive review of the recently signed Companies and Other Allied Matters (CAMA 2020) is commendable, considering that it took 30 years before the act was repealed and replaced.
He said that more importantly, the emphasis on the disclosure of beneficial interest spells doom for perpetrators of corruption, fraud, and criminality in businesses.
