Civic-tech organisation BudgiT Ghana is advocating for the creation and widespread use of a simplified version of the national budget to promote transparency, accountability, and good governance.
According to the organisation, such a guide would help foster an active community of informed citizens who can hold the government accountable and participate meaningfully in the budgetary process.
Speaking to the media after a stakeholder engagement workshop in Accra, BudgiT Ghana’s Country Manager, Jennifer Moffatt, announced the launch of “The Citizen’s Budget”—a user-friendly guide to understanding the national budget.
“This is a simplified version of the national budget that was presented in Parliament by our Minister of Finance. At BudgiT, we focus on simplifying public data, and the national budget is one of the key datasets we work with,” she explained.
“Today, we’re launching our Citizen’s Budget, which distills the core components of the national budget into an accessible format. It highlights essential information every Ghanaian should know—such as the country’s projected revenue for the year, how much the Ghana Revenue Authority is expected to collect for development purposes, and the government’s planned expenditure,” she added.
Meanwhile, at the workshop, Oluseun Onigbinde, Global Director of the BudgIT Foundation, urged civil society organizations (CSOs) across West Africa including those in Ghana, leading budget advocacy initiatives to prioritize the genuine needs of their communities in order to effectively influence government interventions.
He warned that without proper needs assessments, such efforts risk being ineffective and disconnected from the actual challenges citizens face.
“We have to prioritize the issues. There are always going to be many. When you speak to the community, I’m sure they’ll give you a long list—five to ten things. They’ll tell you there’s no water in the village, the school is in poor condition, healthcare is lacking… by the time the conversation ends, you’re left with a list of ten pressing issues,” he said.