How AI tools are rewriting the story of public accountability in Nigeria

For years, Nigeria’s civic-tech community has worked hard to bring public finance data into the light. Anyone who has tried to analyse a federal or state budget in Nigeria knows the frustration. PDF documents often contain hundreds of pages, are not searchable, include conflicting numbers, use inconsistent templates, and lack structure.

BudgIT, like many other civic groups, began its efforts amid this chaos. Our analysts would manually extract figures from bulky documents, carefully clean them, and then reformat them to make them more accessible to citizens. This work often took weeks to finish, even though it should have been automated.

Responding to citizen inquiries was just as challenging. Each day, we received dozens of calls, emails, tweets, and in-person requests from journalists, students, community leaders, and citizens trying to understand how their government was spending public funds. We valued this engagement since it is crucial for accountability. However, each response required someone to sift through multiple datasets. It was common for a single detailed answer to take hours or even an entire day, depending on the complexity of the request. The amount of thought and effort put into this work was enormous, but the need for transparency continued to grow beyond our ability to keep up.

The creation of BIMI, BudgIT’s AI-powered public finance assistant, was a significant turning point. Initially, the goal seemed simple: create a tool to help citizens easily access government budget and spending data. However, by training BIMI on years of Nigeria’s fiscal history, improving its grasp of budget structures across states, aligning data sources, and providing it with the anomalies we documented during a decade of civic engagement, the project transformed from a tool into a revolution.

What once took hours, now takes seconds. A citizen who had to wait an entire day for an email response can now simply ask BIMI in plain English, “How much did my state allocate to primary healthcare this year?” and receive an accurate answer instantly. A journalist researching duplicated projects no longer needs to download 300 pages of a budget since BIMI can spot the repetition and summarise it effortlessly. Students writing academic papers, researchers analysing public spending trends, and citizens monitoring constituency projects have gained a companion that can quickly clarify complex fiscal issues.

Beyond convenience, a more profound shift has occurred: the culture of public finance access. Citizens who once felt overwhelmed by budget documents now approach them with confidence. Engagement is no longer hindered by human bottlenecks or office hours. A small community activist in Kaduna, a young mother in Awka, or a teacher in Abeokuta can interact with Nigeria’s public finance data as easily as they use mobile banking apps. In effect, BIMI has made fiscal information accessible in a way that was previously impossible.

Since BIMI launched, we have seen a significant increase in citizen participation in governance. Young people, especially students, are now engaging more actively in discussions that were once led by older generations. Issues such as service delivery, accountability, and public finance are grabbing the attention of a new generation, indicating a cultural shift in civic awareness.

Through BIMI, we have trained more than 700 students in data journalism at the University of Abuja and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. This training gives them practical skills to analyse and report on public data. We have also empowered more than 1,500 community champions in all 36 states and the FCT with skills in AI prompting and data analytics, enhancing grassroots accountability. BIMI has also attracted significant interest beyond Nigeria. At the Digital Rights Inclusion Forum in Lusaka in April 2025, we secured opportunities to collaborate with organisations across Africa, broadening our vision for AI-driven civic engagement on the continent.

This change is not happening in isolation. Across the civic-tech landscape, organisations are discovering how AI can break old barriers. For example, Citizen Gavel is using Podus AI to address problems within the justice system. What BudgIT is doing in public finance, and Gavel in justice reform, is making systems that have felt closed off to citizens more understandable. Together, innovations like BIMI and Podus represent a new era where civic participation is no longer limited by technical complexity or government opacity.

The most notable aspect of this shift is its impact on our internal operations. Analysts who once spent entire days answering the same questions now devote more time to investigative research, in-depth analyses, and institutional engagement. AI has not replaced human expertise; it has expanded it. It has taken over repetitive tasks, freeing our minds for more important work. The number of citizens we can assist at any given moment has multiplied beyond what we could achieve manually. Our accuracy in interpreting data has improved, and our ability to identify anomalies in public spending has become faster and more thorough.

However, this change goes beyond BudgIT or Gavel. Nigeria is at a crossroads where adopting AI could shape its democratic and developmental future. If we fully embrace this technology responsibly, ethically, and collaboratively, we can create a governance system that is more transparent, efficient, and inclusive than anything we have seen since independence. This requires intentional investment, not just in technology, but also in people, institutions, and policy frameworks.

Government agencies need to view AI, not as an unnecessary luxury but as a practical tool for addressing everyday governance issues, such as budget tracking, payroll management, procurement oversight, service delivery assessment, and citizen communication. Nigeria is already lagging, and we cannot afford to be mere observers in a rapidly changing world. The civic sector must also enhance its capacity. Civil society organisations should invest in training, datasets, and AI-driven tools to analyse government performance at scale. Universities and research institutions must emphasise AI literacy for the next generation of public administrators. Above all, these efforts must be grounded in ethical standards that protect citizens’ rights and prevent misuse, especially in sensitive areas like health, identity, and law enforcement.

The truth is simple: AI is not coming; it is here. The countries that will thrive in the coming decades are those that build with it, not those that fear it. Nigeria cannot keep playing catch-up by reacting to innovations long after global standards shift. We have the talent, the ingenuity, and the urgency needed to lead Africa’s AI-driven governance transformation. What we need now is the courage and the will to scale this effort.

BIMI has shown that it is possible when technology meets civic purpose. It demonstrates how one innovation can reshape public engagement, change institutional behaviour, and empower millions. But this is only the beginning. With focused investment and smart adoption, Nigeria can create an environment where AI strengthens democracy, deepens accountability, and puts power firmly back into the hands of citizens.

This is the future we must pursue. Not tomorrow. Not someday, but now.

Oluwatosin Iseniyi is the Head of AI and Data Unit at BudgIT.

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