How AI tools can help Nigeria tackle budget padding

Watch How AI tools can help Nigeria tackle budget padding - Guardian Nigeria on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Every year Nigeria sets aside billions for development of roads, schools, health care

00:06and more. But somewhere along the way, numbers stop adding up. Inflicted costs, duplicated

00:13projects, suspicious allocations. It's called budget padding. And it's one of the biggest

00:20threats to public accountability. But what if we could catch these issues before the money

00:25leaves the treasury? That's where artificial intelligence comes in. Not the robots we see

00:31in movies, but real practical tools designed to make sense of complex data and spot red flags

00:39in government spending. In this explainer, we will walk you through how AI can help Nigeria clean up

00:45its budgeting process from detecting suspicious entries, to empowering citizens, to tracking

00:51public phones like never before. AI like IBM Western Analytics, Google BigQuery ML and Microsoft

00:59Azure AI are already being used around the world to find inconsistency in financial records.

01:07These platforms can scan thousands of budget lines in seconds, flag inflated figures and raise a lot

01:14before shady projects get the green lines. Now think about how often you've seen the same

01:20road or school projects show up under different ministries. That's no accident. It's duplication.

01:27That's no accident. It's duplication. And AI tools like Panati Foundry and SAX Fraud Framework

01:34are built to catch that. The cross-reference agency data to ensure one project isn't quietly copied

01:41elsewhere with a new name and a fresh budget. But AI isn't just for the government or tech experts.

01:48Thanks to tools like GPT-powered dashboards, Kibana and Ushidini, everyday Nigerians including

01:55journalists and civil groups can now assess simplified, easy-to-understand summaries of public spending.

02:03This means more eyes on the budget and fewer places for fraud to hide. Even better, these tools can plug

02:11into systems Nigeria already uses like IPPIS, GIFMIS and the Open Treasury Portal. With automation software

02:21such as UiPath and Qlik Sense, ghost workers, pardon salaries and inflated contracts can be flagged

02:29automatically and in real time. And here is the real game changer. Platforms like ACL Robotics and Fico

02:36Cloud don't just catch fraud. They learn from past data to predict where it's likely to happen next.

02:43That's proactive, not reactive budgeting. The bottom line is this. If Nigeria embraces these AI tools,

02:51we are looking at a future of smarter monitoring, faster detection and stronger accountability in public

02:58spending. AI may not fix everything, but it gives us a fighting chance. So what do you think?

03:05Which of these tools would you love to see used in Nigeria's budgeting system?

03:10Let us know in the comments below. Would love to hear your thoughts.