The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has commenced the digitalisation of its Sub-National Fiscal Survey across the 36 states, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and 774 Local Government Areas to improve the accuracy, timeliness and reliability of economic data.
The initiative, being driven by the Bank’s Statistics Department, is aimed at replacing the largely manual reporting system with a digital platform to strengthen fiscal data collection and support evidence-based monetary and fiscal policy decisions.
The Director of the CBN Statistics Department, Dr Usman Moses Okpanachi, disclosed this at a stakeholders’ engagement on Sub-National Fiscal Statistics held recently in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Okpanachi said reliable fiscal statistics were essential for effective economic management, particularly in assessing government revenue, expenditure patterns, financing needs and fiscal pressures.
He explained that the existing twice-yearly manual survey faced challenges relating to logistics, data validation, processing and timely submissions.
According to him, the digital platform will standardise data entry, simplify submissions, improve validation and monitoring, and facilitate the transition to more frequent quarterly reporting.
He urged state and local governments to ensure prompt submission and proper reconciliation of fiscal data, while appointing designated officers to guarantee continuity in the process.
The nationwide engagement, which commenced on October 26, 2026, is expected to cover all states by December 4, while the FCT is scheduled for December 9 and 10.
The CBN said that as of November 6, 2026, 16 states and their local governments had been covered, with attendance reaching 100 per cent in almost all the states visited.
The Bank said trained fiscal officers would subsequently transfer the knowledge to their respective institutions and commence submissions through the digital platform.
It added that the initiative forms part of its broader data transformation agenda to strengthen fiscal planning, budgeting and policy evaluation, while providing more reliable information for national economic decision-making.
