The Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba has urged citizens to get actively involved in the monitoring and evaluation of projects carried out by the Federal and State Government in order to close the infrastructure gap in the country.
The Minister said this at the 15th Nigeria Open Government Partnership National Steering Committee meeting which held at the Budget and National Planning building in Abuja, on Tuesday.
While encouraging Nigerians to make use of the ‘Eyemark’ Application which is now active to monitor the thousands of ongoing projects in the country, Agba noted that If money that is appropriated for a project is not used, citizens have the right to hold leaders accountable.
“I will like to inform you that eyemark is live and running and I encourage Nigerians to use it, It is essential that we have an application like this that can be used all over the country where over 200 million Nigerians can help us monitor projects rather than the 30 personnel that we have in the national monitoring and evaluation department. You will agree with me that 30 people cannot monitor the thousand of projects that we have in the country.
“We don’t just want projects that are earmarked but eye marked. Projects that can be seen and touched, in order to close the infrastructure gap which we currently have.” He stressed.
In his opening remarks, Prince Agba who is also the Co-chair (State Actor) OGP Nigeria, said that in continuation of Nigeria’s commitment to implementing a public register of Beneficial Owners of Corporate Entities operating in Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved Nigeria’s membership of the Beneficial Ownership Leadership Group with the Corporate Affairs Commission and the Nigerian OGP National Steering Committee continue with the implementation of the mandate to design, develop and establish the public Register of Beneficial Owners of companies in Nigeria.
According to him, the approval follows the continuous support of the President for beneficial ownership in Nigeria that includes the signing of the repeal and re-enactment of Companies and Allied Matters Amendment Act (CAMA) 2020, which made clear provision for collection and publication of Beneficial Ownership information.
He also enjoined the incoming Co-Chairs to correct the setbacks encountered in the implementation of the second National Action Plan (NAP II).
“May I equally invite you to take a critical look at the NAP III document before you and make valuable inputs that will enrich the process. Please draw heavily from your experiences in implementing NAP II and make informed inputs into the draft NAP III. We expect a new NAP devoid of the challenges witnessed in NAP II implementation.” He said.
On his part, the Co-chair (Non-State Actors), Dr. Tayo Aduloju, expressed gratitude to the Honorable Minister, for being particularly instrumental in leading the convening of reformers and coordination of Open Government Reforms using OGP.
Adulolu, said Civil society Organisations are at the final stages of ensuring that all aspirants sign up to Open Government Partnership Principles, in order to aid citizens hold leaders accountable on running a transparent government both at the state and federal level.