When Iyanuoluwa Bolarinwa with his team at Civic Hive started on an initiative for educational technology to make government budgets accessible to ordinary Nigerians, few believed the initiative would fundamentally transform citizen engagement with public finance, especially the youths.
Six years later, his innovations at BudgIT have become an essential component of Nigeria’s democratic economic infrastructure.
In an exclusive interview at his Lagos office, Bolarinwa reflected on the journey that has positioned him as one of Africa’s foremost civic experts on open government and civic financial education.
“The problem was never a lack of data,” Bolarinwa explained, “The challenge was translating that data into information that empowers citizens to ask the right questions of their elected representatives on what happens with the national money.”
Bolarinwa’s career trajectory demonstrates his commitment to this vision. Starting as Community Manager at Civic Hive in 2017, he built the prestigious Civic Hive Fellowship program that created ten civic tech solutions and scaled membership from zero to 1,000 in just one year. His early success in forging partnerships with private, public, multilateral, and bilateral donor organizations set the stage for his later achievements.
His most recent accomplishment which showcases his skills is the “GovSpend” platform, which allows users to monitor infrastructure projects in their communities and report discrepancies between allocated funds and actual implementation. The comprehensive three-year trend analysis he conducted through this platform has become an essential resource for accountability advocates nationwide.
The impact of Bolarinwa’s work was formally recognized when he established a partnership with the 10th Nigerian Senate, giving him unprecedented access to reform government spending mechanisms from within. As National Coordinator of the Open Alliance Secretariat, he has built strategic relationships between civil society and government institutions.
His international influence expanded dramatically during his tenure as Assistant Manager for International Growth at BudgIT from 2021 to 2023. In this role, he designed program work plans for COVID-19 projects across seven African countries and successfully managed projects valued at $10.45 million. His ability to secure repeat funding from over 80% of donors speaks to the effectiveness of his approach.
Finance is an integral part for national reform however without proper civic education fueled with data-backed research, funds will be misappropriated. Mr Bolarinwa has not just created tools; he has built capacity within both government and civil society to maintain fiscal transparency regardless of which political party holds power.
As Nigeria continues to navigate the complex challenges of governance and financial accountability, Bolarinwa’s expertise in this field through his built systems stand as a powerful example of how homegrown technical expertise can strengthen democratic institutions, empower the people through proper education and enlightenment and foster financial growth.
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