388 States, FCT Officials Undergo Capacity-building Training on Effective Budget Planning

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

The HOPE Governance Programme (HOPE-GOV), a World Bank-assisted initiative has so trained 388 officials from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to strengthen the capacity of state institutions to align their annual operational plans for primary healthcare and annual consolidated workplans for basic education with their respective budgets.

The HOPE Governance Programme is a $500 million World Bank-supported programme designed to address critical governance, financing, transparency and accountability constraints affecting the delivery of basic education and primary healthcare services.

Officials, who participated in the month-long capacity-building workshop which kicked off in October, were state permanent secretaries of budget and planning, executive chairmen of state universal  basic education boards, executive secretaries of state primary health care development agencies, FCT Health and Environment Secretariat, state directors of budget, desk officers of the Sector-Wide Approach Coordination Office across the states and the HOPE-Governance Programme Focal Persons in the states and the FCT.

The workshop was also designed to enhance the practical application of the National Chart of Accounts and programme-based budgetting in the basic education and primary health care sectors.

The training supported states to prioritise cost, map and geo-tagging of projects and reconcile their sector Workplans with available budget ceilings.

It also identified and addressed state-specific planning and budgeting gaps through practical, hands-on exercises using actual state documents.

Announcing the progress made so far at the training programme via a statement issued yesterday, HOPE-GOV Program’s Communication Officer, Joe Mutah said

the four-batch capacity-building workshop, will conclude on November 4, 2026.

He said the National Coordinator, Dr. Assad Hassan disclosed in Abuja on Monday that the event was timed to match ongoing 2027 states’ budget preparations.

According to Hassan, the strategic timing was to ensure that states budgets properly align with the National Chart of Accounts based on the Programme’s Disbursement-Linked Indicator 2 (DLI 2).

“This workshop is designed to strengthen the capacity of State institutions to align their Annual Operational Plans for Primary Healthcare and Annual Consolidated Workplans for Basic Education with their respective budgets.

“Achieving the objectives of DLI 2 requires a coordinated, multisectoral approach. This is why the composition of participants in this room is deliberate, bringing together key institutions and stakeholders from the budget, primary healthcare and basic education sectors. Effective collaboration among these institutions is essential to ensuring that planning, budgeting and implementation are properly aligned,” he said.

According to Hassan, budget should reflect what government intends to achieve, not simply what government intends to spend, hence planning must drive budgeting, and budgeting must ultimately support service delivery.

“A good plan without a budget is an aspiration; a budget without a plan is an invitation to inefficiency,” he stated.

Hassan  said the task of the HOPE Governance Programme was to ensure that priorities are properly costed by the states, adequately funded and translated into tangible results for the citizens, adding that “every naira allocated should be linked to a clearly defined priority, and every priority should be supported by a realistic and actionable implementation plan.”

In her remarks on the occasion, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Dr. Deborah Odoh, said the participation of senior states officials in the workshop was to ensure that the technical work undertaken translates into institutional decisions that will improve budgeting and implementation in the states.

She pledged the commitment of the ministry through the HOPE Governance Programme, to work with state governments and the World Bank with a view to strengthening public financial management systems and boosting the delivery of essential services to the citizens.

Speaking at the event, the World Bank Task Team Lead for the HOPE Governance Programme, Mr. Ikechukwu Nweje disclosed that states stand to receive significant incentives upon achieving DLI 2.

He reaffirmed the World Bank’s commitment to supporting state governments in implementing critical governance reforms aimed at improving service delivery in basic education and primary healthcare.