Nigeria's 1999 Constitution gives the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) the power to obtain asset declarations from government officials, and the power to make these declarations publicly available for inspection by Nigerian citizens. This asset declaration process is internationally recognised as a major tool for curbing corruption, to enable citizens to hold public officials to account for their source of wealth. Despite this constitutional power, and despite the Freedom of Information Act that guarantees citizen access to public information, the CCB interprets its madate conservatively, stating they cannot enforce this power without express guidelines by the National Assembly - guidelines that the National Assembly has failed to provide. As a result, there is a lack of transparency and accountability of public officials regarding their assets.

The timely intervention of the Open Society for West Africa (OSIWA) in January 2020 is helping to re-write the story. The Integrity Organisation, funded by OSIWA, has supported the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) in strengthening its institutional capacity for online assets declarations, a vital component in fighting corruption in the public sector. Integrity contributed to the strengthening of the oversight functions of the CCB by providing technical and infrastructure support to promote assets declaration reporting and information disclosures in the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act. Through this partnership, the CCB is repositioning itself in line with international best practices to further drive policy. The organization is striving to ensure capacity to fully implement its role as the most uniquely-placed agency to curb corruption in the public service.

During our collaboration, Integrity demonstrated to the CCB and other Anti-Corruption Stakeholders how technology can be embraced to promote probity, transparency and accountability in the Nigerian public sector. By hosting a publicly accessible data and analytics dashboard, the CCB is better able to enable citizens to engage with relevant data, thus build public trust and confidence. Citizens will in turn be able to use this data to demand their rights and hold government officials and agencies accountable for public use of funds.