Written by: Nancy Adzo Akpene Avevor

Fifteen years ago, an idea began with a simple question: what if public information could be made actually useful to the public? In 2011, at Co-Creation Hub’s first Tech-In-Governance Competition in Lagos, Oluseun Onigbinde entered at the last minute with an idea to transform public-sector data, especially the national budget, into something ordinary citizens could understand and use. There, he met Joseph Agunbiade. Together, they began building what would become the BudgIT Foundation. The first BudgIT platform was, by Oluseun’s own recollection, “a quirky black website with just three circles.” It was hardly grand, but it was enough to begin, and in September 2011, the BudgIT Foundation was officially launched.

What happens when an idea refuses to stay small?

BudgIT began with looking at government budgets, but the deeper ambition was always bigger: make public information more accessible and understandable, make governments more open, and make citizens better equipped to participate in the decisions that shape their lives. During Nigeria’s 2012 Occupy Movement, BudgIT created the Budget Cut app, attracting 4000 users in 60 hours, cementing its place as one of the most widely used fact-checking reference sites for the national budget. In 2014, Tracka was created to help citizens follow government projects. Then came an incredible barrage of initiatives like OpenNASS, State of States, and Civic Hive, which is one of the biggest sub-branches of the Foundation, creating space for civic innovators and development technologists working across participation, digital rights and equality. BudgIT’s history in Nigeria records advocacy that contributed considerably to more open budgets, research on fiscal policy and programs that advanced the causes of hundreds of communities and empowered young people, women and vulnerable groups through fellowships, support programs and platforms.   

The Work Goes Regional; Ghana, Senegal and Others Enter the Fold

The idea that began in Lagos did not stay in Lagos. As the Foundation grew, so did the conviction that the problem of inaccessible public information was not uniquely Nigerian. Across Africa, citizens were navigating budgets they could not understand, public systems they could not question, and decisions that often felt far removed from the communities they were meant to serve. BudgIT’s work, therefore, began to travel—to Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Liberia—while building connections and partnerships that extended the work to the United States and the United Kingdom. Each country brought its own political realities, institutional architecture, and civic challenges, but the question was still the same: how do we put useful public information back into the hands of the people?

Ghana: Five Years of Building, Questioning, and Showing Up 

The journey for Ghana began in 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when uncertainty was everywhere, and public money was moving quickly. BudgIT Ghana started from a modest office on the Haatso-Atomic stretch in Accra, with a small team of eager program staff and volunteers, led by Ray Fiifi Nkum, and a pressing question of its own: as the government mobilised resources to respond to a national emergency, could citizens see where the money was going? The answer became the COVID-19 Transparency and Accountability Project (CTAP), which placed public expenditure under a microscope at a time when transparency was both necessary and urgent. From that beginning, the Ghana office steadily found its voice and its place. 

Five years later, with a brilliant team led by Jennifer A. Moffatt, BudgIT Ghana has grown into a recognised force in budget analysis, advocacy, and fiscal accountability. The office is a charter member of the Parliamentary Committee on Budgets and Fiscal Policy and works closely with the Finance Ministry each year to formulate the budget. BudgiT Ghana is also a leading member of the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) Budget Forum, the African Parliamentary Monitoring Network, the Tax Justice Network, and the Coalition on Constitutional Reform. In 2023, it pioneered a campaign to include, for the first time in Ghana’s history, Health Sector Accountability as a commitment in Ghana’s 5th National Action Plan (NAP-5) under the Open Government Partnership, changing the face of government response in primary healthcare realities in Ghana. Brilliantly, BudgiT Ghana has also cemented itself as a leading expert, with the most up-to-date research on tax equity in the field, evidenced by its partnership with the World Bank as a tax research partner. In 2024, the office was part of a team of pioneers who created Parliament’s Citizens Bureau, helping to build stronger channels between Parliament and the people. 

 

The most historic development in Ghana’s journey is perhaps the launch of the Tracka initiative in September 2024, bringing accountability from budget pages to communities. The platform, functioning as both a website and a mobile app, has grown into a community of more than 2000 users, supported by hundreds of Community Champions and six Regional Tracking Officers (RTOs) across Greater Accra, Oti, Central, Eastern, Northern, and Bono Regions, and is still expanding.  In harnessing Ghana’s considerably youthful population, the Ghana office created a model, the Youth Participatory Forum, which would be replicated across other country offices, creating a forum for youth engagement, empowerment and development in fiscal policy, research, advocacy and community development, creating chapters across six university campuses, including the University of Ghana, UPSA, KNUST, NSBT, UNIMAC, and Wisconsin University College, and amassing a core member base of 1000 and counting. In five years, BudgIT Ghana has carried out its mission and continues to aim for deeper impact and stronger engagement.

What Does a Fifteen-Year Time Capsule Mean to the Humans of BudgIT?

Fast forward to 2026, the BudgIT Foundation has fifteen years of skin in the game; breaking down the big numbers, shouting government priorities and gaps on proverbial rooftops of media, research, advocacy, training, and essentially any medium acceptable to the mission. September 2026 is big and in every sense, so the humans of BudgIT decided to come together in the city where it all started; the hometown, Lagos, to celebrate, connect, share, recoup, and calibrate for the next 15 years. From Ghana, the United States, Senegal, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Washington, and the United Kingdom, teams gathered at the headquarters to mark fifteen years of work, growth and shared purpose. 

Day One: Looking Inward

At the headquarters and Civic Hive offices, teams participated in sessions on safety and security, exploring realities about the very real dangers of doing this work as passionately and comprehensively as we do. The Co-Founder & Chief Technical Officer, Joseph Agunbiade, led a very cutting edge session on artificial intelligence; considering the sphere BudgIT operates as an organisation that operates at the intersection of technology, information and citizenship, and exploring the critical question of; if technology can change how people access information, what possibilities, and responsibilities come with that power and how can BudgIT leverage that effectively for what we do?

The Head of Civic Hive, Joseph Amenaghawon, led a session on activism and the work BudgIT had done and continues to do in reshaping and transforming how citizens engage with civic processes and governance. The Global Director, Oluseun Onigbinde addressed the room on BudgIT’s work, growth and impact and sustaining and building on the momentum to do even bigger work, in an evolving donor landscape and socio-political climate.

The Citizenship We Keep Talking About

The anniversary also took the itinerary beyond the Foundation’s walls with an external town hall that brought together local government institutions, civil society actors, and diverse community stakeholders for a candid conversation on local governance, public services and meaningful citizen participation. The session not only explored how citizens can better understand and engage the institutions responsible for their communities, but also how tools such as Tracka, can turn information into action and accountability. More importantly, it offered a space to exchange experiences, confront the realities of citizen-government engagement, and draw practical lessons that translate across BudgIT’s different country contexts, understanding that while the systems may differ, the need for informed citizens, responsive institutions and stronger public accountability remains universal.

All Work and No Play Can Make Even the Humans of BudgIT Dull

For all the seriousness of the work, even the humans of BudgIT understand that fifteen years of incredible work deserves to be celebrated properly. So somewhere between the training and strategy sessions, town halls, the teams made space for some good fun. We happily traded dashboards and projector screens for cinema seats, popcorn and the latest blockbuster in Lagos’ biggest cinema house; we traded cross-country competition for actual pool and games sessions where teams went head to head with the kind of ruthless enthusiasm that is forged from fifteen years of working together. A well-needed road trip through the sights of Lagos and a day at the beach gave teams the opportunity to share stories, histories, food, experiences and bond even deeper for the work ahead.  Anniversary week ended with a fitting climax with a formal dinner, where the Foundation gathered to raise a glass to fifteen years of growth, impact, friendship, complemented with a heartfelt exhortation to carry the work higher and stronger, leading the Humans of BudgIT to cut the anniversary cake. 

Fifteen Years in the Rear-View Mirror; the Road Ahead

It would be easy to measure fifteen years in publications, platforms, partnerships, offices, countries, or numbers. Interestingly, perhaps the truer measure is distance: the distance between a budget and a citizen who needs to understand it; between a government promise and a community waiting to see it delivered; between information buried in technical language and the person who can finally say, “Now I understand.” For fifteen years, BudgIT has worked to close those distances; simplifying budgets, opening government processes, building civic technology, and empowering citizens for action. This anniversary is about the people who make the work possible and the citizens whose questions continue to push it forward. Fifteen years ago, BudgIT began with three circles on a “funny black website”. Today, those circles have grown across borders, countries and communities. We can look back with gratitude, but the road ahead is longer, the questions are bigger, and the work is far from finished.