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etroactively, is clearly
outlined;
A credible accounting system
is proposed for tracking
project costs and producing
periodic and cumulative totals
of all project-related costs;
The introduction of a data
warehousing e-system to
facilitate the standardisation of
M&E data at the OSSAP-
MDGs and state levels;
A credible plan is presented
for documenting and reporting
on estimated changes in the
identified key indicators at
least at the end of the budget
year.
Financial Lessons and Challenges
Most of the Goals projects suffered from
challenges in the 2009 financial year. These
ranged from underfunding through late release of
funds to contractors to low aid support (in the case
of Goal 8). Sustainability of some health-related
projects such as the MSS and NHIS MCH
interventions (which show promise of making
huge and very visible impacts) might be
threatened by lack of funding. For example,
despite the tremendous success achieved by the
MSS and NHIS MCH programmes, some
problems still persist that adversely affect them.
Despite signing an MOU with the NPHCDA, there
are still some state and LGAs that are not fulfilling
their responsibilities (e.g. in Kano, Ebonyi,
Gombe and Delta) such as provision of
accommodation for the midwives. As a result of
this, States such as Ebonyi found it difficult to
offer 24-hour skilled care). Provision of electricity
and clean water for the PHCs, provision of basic
drugs and laboratory services, delay in payment of
allowances, etc., all contributes to poor utilisation
of these centres. It would appear that more
funding in the form of grants (not as capital
appropriations which must be spent within a
financial year or returned to the treasury) would
improve their sustainability.
For Goal 2, the increase in budgetary allocation is
not proportionate to increasing number of children
of school age, resulting in a qualified
underfunding of UBEC to carry out its mandate
programmes. In the Housing and Police sectors,
there was no breakdown of project costs (for each
project), thus making it impossible for the M&E
teams to determine how much was allocated to
each MDG goal in these sectors.
There have been complaints from contractors of
delays in payments for works done and this is said
to be responsible for the slow pace of works on
some of the sites.
For Goal 8, which the M&E report is considering
in detail for the first time, the following key
challenges need to be addressed:
Nigeria‘s balance-of-payments situation is
determined primarily by developments in the
world oil market; hence it has not been
amenable to changes induced by import
prohibitions, a policy instrument aimed at
protection of domestic producers. But there is
little evidence that it has produced the desired
result. For example, a recent study of the
textile sector—the single most important target
of the import prohibition policies of the past
twenty years—shows that both its output and
employment have stagnated or declined
(Oyejide et al., 2003);
Large-scale smuggling in spite of stiff
penalties imposed on those involved with the
importation, transportation, storage, display or
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