President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved a substantial increase in the Code of Conduct Bureau’s (CCB) budget, raising it from about N3 billion to nearly N20 billion.
The announcement was made by the CCB Chairman, Dr Abubakar Bello, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
The budget increase is aimed at modernizing the country’s outdated asset declaration system, strengthening verification and enforcement, and funding technological upgrades to enhance the bureau’s effectiveness.
Bello explained that the budget increase is necessary to overhaul the nation’s outdated asset declaration system, strengthen verification and enforcement to make the bureau more virile.
He noted that previous processes relied on paper forms that were scarce, expensive to print and difficult to store, analyse and verify, creating a backlog for public servants across ministries and agencies.
The 2025 budget had allocated only about N70 million for printing forms, sufficient to produce just about 50,000 to 60,000 forms for over 4.5 million public servants nationwide. To temporarily solve the issue, the bureau allowed downloadable forms online, but Bello said this only addressed availability, not the deeper problem of a manual system.
Looking ahead, Bello revealed that a fully online asset declaration platform is being developed and is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2026.
The system will allow public servants to declare assets from anywhere in the world and will link with key government databases, including the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Bank Verification Number (BVN) system, land registries, and other records for instant verification.
He added that artificial intelligence will be deployed to analyse declarations, compare net worth at the beginning and end of tenures, and flag unexplained wealth or potential breaches of the Code of Conduct for further review.
Bello also highlighted that verification exercises have begun for ministers, permanent secretaries, and other senior officials, stressing that verification is not an investigation.
He disclosed that some recovered funds have already been transferred to the Central Bank of Nigeria. Bello warned that failure to declare assets or refusing verification invitations could trigger investigations and possible prosecution before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, urging public servants to comply with the bureau’s guiding principle: “Declare or Forfeit.”
What you should know
The budget increase comes alongside broader efforts to improve compliance and transparency among public officers.
The Federal Government, in August, launched a virtual interactive platform to improve understanding and enforcement of the Code of Conduct for public officers across Nigeria. The platform provides accessible, cost-effective training to ensure public servants fully understand and apply the Code in their daily duties, while enabling tracking of compliance. It also explains key provisions such as avoiding conflicts of interest and the importance of asset declaration, promoting openness, integrity, and accountability.