President Bola Tinubu has approved a major increase in the budget of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), raising it from about ₦3 billion to nearly ₦20 billion to modernise Nigeria’s asset declaration system and strengthen enforcement.
The CCB Chairman, Dr Abubakar Bello, disclosed this on Sunday in Abuja during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), saying the approval would overhaul the bureau’s largely manual operations and boost verification capacity.
“When I assumed office, asset declaration was still paper-based, expensive and difficult to verify,” Bello said, noting that millions of public servants depended on scarce and costly printed forms.
He explained that the 2025 budget provided only about ₦70 million for printing enough for just 50,000 to 60,000 forms for more than 4.5 million public servants nationwide forcing the bureau to adopt a temporary online download option inspired by Kenya.
Bello revealed that the CCB is now developing a fully digital asset declaration platform, expected to be ready by the first quarter of 2026.
The system will allow officials to declare assets from anywhere and will link directly with databases such as the CAC, FIRS, BVN system and land registries for instant verification.
He said artificial intelligence will be used to analyse declarations, track changes in net worth and flag unexplained wealth or possible breaches of the Code of Conduct.
As part of wider reforms, Bello said the bureau has begun verifying the assets of ministers, permanent secretaries and other senior officials, stressing that “verification is not investigation.”
He disclosed that Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, personally verified his assets, describing it as leadership by example.
Bello warned that failure to declare assets or honour verification invitations could lead to forfeiture, investigation and prosecution before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, urging public servants to comply with the bureau’s guiding principle: “Declare or Forfeit.”
