Financial Governance and Sustainable Development in Nigeria: A Critical Review

Abstract

The work is a review of the Federal Government application of fiscal and monetary policies to create the necessary healthy environment for sustainable growth and development of the Nigerian state.  The review indicates that although the government of Nigeria has designed in theory good fiscal and monetary policies to facilitate sustainable growth and development of all the sectors of the economy, the practical implementation of such policies to attain the desired results has remained an illusion.  The problem responsible for the great expectations not matching with the realities on ground is because of lack of budget discipline.  The Nigerian government in practical terms most often than not hardly follows the implementation of her annual budget as approved by the National Assembly.  Consequently, a lot of extra budgetary activities which amount to both financial and budget indiscipline are experienced in the management of the annual budgets over the years.  It is therefore recommended that the Federal Government of Nigeria should maintain strict budget discipline to guarantee good financial governance which is a necessary condition for sustainable development.

Keywords: Financial Governance, Sustainable Development, Money Market, Policy