Project Case Study
Building the capacity of Nigeria’s economic management systems
Working with the Nigerian Ministry of Finance to promote better fiscal management
In the decades following independence in 1963 and particularly during the oil boom of the 1970s, Nigeria’s economy was characterised by corruption and mismanagement. As such, international assistance has focused in recent years on economic management.
In 1998 we were asked to assist the World Bank in a mission to design an Economic Management Capacity Project in Nigeria.
The project was intended to assist the government in strengthening key aspects of economic management. This involved enhancing its capacity to implement and monitor macroeconomic and structural policies, improving the quality and timeliness of data for economic and social analysis, strengthening the institutional base for and improving the efficient use of public resources, and ensuring greater transparency, accountability and probity in its fiscal operations.
The mission focused on the three distinct components of technical assistance and capacity building requested by the Minister of Finance as areas of high priority, which were macro-policy, statistics, and institutional development.
Our contribution was instrumental in identifying the proposed project in terms of objectives, scope, sub-components, tasks, responsibilities and a timetable for next steps, all of which looked to provide Nigeria with a more efficient and accountable system for economic management.
