Photo: Afromusing/Flickr

Buildings in Abuja, Nigeria.

The perennial poor budget implementation in Nigeria is caused by inadequate planning, the World Bank Procurement specialist, Mr. Bayo Awose has said.

Speaking yesterday at the opening ceremony of a two-week conversion training for procurement officers, organised by the Bureau of Public Procurement, Awose said lack of adequate planning was to blame for less than 100 percent budget execution.

He said "There have been complaints of budget executions delay year in year out. We have to know that procurement is not the real cause of the delay of budget implementation in Nigeria. One of the real causes in the budget implementation is the lack of planning.

"One thing we need to think about is procurement planning, it is something that has been lacking in the economic development in budget execution."

While calling on the MDAs to embark on aggressive procurement planning to complement other stakeholders' efforts, he said budget is like a work plan that needs thorough attention.

"Budget is like a work plan, the other leg is a procurement plan and by the time you put the whole thing together the budget will not have problem," he said.

Awose said there is need for symbiotic efforts from all the stakeholders to ensure successful implementation of the budget.

The Director General of the BPP, Engineer Emeka Ezeh in his remarks, expressed regrets that attention has always been focused on other factors in the procurement process other than personnel which is the key factor that makes others to succeed.