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There are constant and growing pressures on governments and organizations around the world to be more responsive to demands from internal and external stakeholders for good governance, accountability and transparency, greater development effectiveness and delivery of tangible results.

Citizens are also among stakeholders interested in how government spending works in their communities. Consequently, Follow The Money provides a platform  for  clear, objective evidence on resources, easily accessible on paper and online, so that decisions and policy can better be informed on how transparent and accountable these processes are.

In May 2012, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan promised to release N850 million [$5.2 million] for the remediation of the only village that has not been remediated as part of the 2010 emergency response to the Zamfara Lead Poisoning crisis. After a vigorous advocacy campaign between November 2012 and January 2013, where more than 600,000 people were reached via the social media, coupled with the noise generated by mainstream media (local, national and international),by the end of January 2013, N837.3 million [$5.2 million] was released from the Ecological Fund Office to three federal ministries.

The Federal Ministry of Environment [MOE] received N479 million [$2.9 million] for the remediation [clean-up] of Bagega, the Federal Ministry of Health received N200 million [$1.2 million] to support and make health intervention within lead communities sustainable, while the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel development [MMSD] received N158.3 million [$1.5 million] for safer mining practices.

Too often, as this kind of funds been mismanaged, or “lost” before getting to the community it was meant for, in this case – Bagega. As tracking of government spending has become difficult, this report throw a new light on methods used in the tracking of these funds meant for  Bagega, and how the release of the funds have helped the community itself.

We hope that you find this report and all the supporting data online helpful. We are always available to answer questions, provide additional information or produce specific graphs and spreadsheets through our mail and by phone. Please visit the Follow The Money Website:

We would welcome your feedback and suggestions about information that you will find most useful. Finally, a big thank you to all you wonderful people that mentioned #SaveBagega on the social media and all international, national and local media that amplified the voice of the people of Bagega when we started this campaign in mid – 2012, the data revolution is here!