The House of Representatives at its plenary session of Thursday, December 15 2016, passed for second reading a bill titled “A Bill for an Act to provide improved aid effectiveness, accountability and co-operation for donor recipients and other matters connected therewith”. Sponsor of the bill, Hon. Ochiglegor Idagbo, described the bill as seeking to provide a framework for timely publication, transparent reporting and disclosure by all donor and development partners of application of donor funds in Nigeria.
Leading the debate on the Bill, Hon. Idagbo cited examples of countries that receive donor funds and mentioned that they had witnessed significant improvement in their educational, infrastructural and health systems as a result of the legal and institutional framework put in place to ensure proper coordination and alignment of aid towards their development strategies. However, he mentioned that such success could not yet be attributed to Nigeria.
Furthermore, Hon. Idagbo expressed dismay over the Federal Government’s inability to ascertain the exact impact of donor aids to Nigeria and stressed the importance of harmonizing rules, procedures and policies for monitoring foreign assistance. An additional concern was that donor agencies implement programmes without recourse to the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, leading to a lack of alignment of interventions to Nigeria’s development plan and strategy. He also explained that the bill if passed, would provide sanctions for erring government agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations.
Contributing to the debate on the Bill, Hon. Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje (PDP: Abia) stated that Nigeria is not a donor-dependent country which relies on allocations from donor agencies when planning its budget. Therefore, urging the Federal Government to set up processes to have control over funds which do not belong to them would be challenging.
The Bill has been referred to the Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management for further legislative action.
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