State governments have been mandated to begin quarterly publication of details of contract awards in the basic education and primary healthcare sectors, in a move to boost transparency in public procurement, according to the federal ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.
Government explained that the new transparency conditions is tied to the World Bank–supported Human Capital Opportunities for Prosperity and Equity (HOPE-GOV) programme.
The disclosure requirement, which takes effect within 30 days of the end of each quarter, is designed to allow independent verification of procurements before states can access performance-based incentive disbursements under the programme.
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Assad Hassan, National Coordinator of the HOPE-GOV Program, disclosed this at the first Implementation Support Meeting of 2026 with State Focal Persons, held virtually in Abuja, preparatory for the First Year Verification by Independent Verification Agents.
He explained that the information must be published on State Government websites to enable verification by the Independent Verification Agents, as a prerequisite for the disbursement of incentive funds to the States.
Assad said minimum contract award information to be published include Project Name; Awarding Institution; Award Date; Name of Contractor and Contract Amount.
“For MDAs without e-procurement, the Independent Verification Agents (IVAs) will obtain schedule of all contracts awarded above threshold (as defined in state procurement law or regulations) and confirm whether disclosures on state official website are compliant with Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) format.
“For MDAs with e-Procurement, the IVAs will obtain schedule of all contracts awarded during year before and after go-live and confirm that State has online portal established to record and publish data on all processes in procurement cycle, for all transactions initiated after go-live resulting in a contract award and confirm whether data published is in line with OCDS,” he explained.
Assad said States are also required to publish Financial Year 2026 citizen’s budget for basic education and primary healthcare by 28 February 2026.
He listed minimum details to be confirmed by IVAs in Citizens Budget as sources of revenues; domestic and foreign grants and loans, other financing sources; total expenditure by functions of government segment with identifiable functions for Basic Education and Primary Health Care; total expenditure by health policy (Programme) segment with identifiable programmes for Basic Health and Primary Health Care and functions and programmes linked to respective economic classifications.
He said others are: budget framework including total revenue and grants, total expenditures, budget deficit, budget financing and financing gap; breakdown of expenditures by sectors and ministries as well as lists of large capital projects and geolocations.
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