Adoption of Participatory Budgeting as An Instrument of Participatory Approach to Economic Development in Adamawa State: A Policy Transfer Analysis

Government budgeting is the process of allocation of resources and managing taxpayers’ funds. It includes setting priorities, estimating government revenue, determining projects to spend on and monitoring the use of funds for the benefit of the citizenry. Citizens and other stakeholders’ participation in the budgeting process is considered to be one of the key requirements for successful budgeting across different tiers and levels of government in Nigeria. This study examines the innovative democratic tools (participatory budgeting) introduced by the Adamawa State government to improve the socio-economic well-being of the citizens across the state. The key areas of investigations in this study are participatory budgeting and town hall meetings organized by the state government within the period of study (2019-2023). The study adopts the use of qualitative research methods for data collection and analysis. Findings from the study reveals that citizens in Adamawa State have access to budget information to make inputs and observations on the projects to be captured in the budget that could improve their socio-economic well-being. The study concludes that participatory approach to budgeting is the most suitable approach to budgeting in the Adamawa State. Thus, the government adopted a Representative Participatory Approach that involves indirect participation, where appointed and elected representatives of existing organizations advocate on behalf of their members and engage with the State Government. In this scenario, participation is mediated by delegates. Thus, the study recommends the adoption of a participatory approach to budgeting across all tiers of government in Nigeria.