ADOPTION OF BLOCK-CHAIN-BASED ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS AND THEIR IMPACT ON PUBLIC EXPENDITURE TRANSPARENCY IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigates the adoption of blockchain in the public sector of Nigeria, focusing on both federal and state-level bodies. The methodology is qualitative in nature and thus depends entirely on secondary data from industry reports, policy papers, stakeholder studies, and reliable sources such as SiBAN, BusinessDay Nigeria, and mendeley.com. Thematic content analysis was done to highlight the trend of adoption, the cases where blockchain is being applied, the challenges faced, and some readiness signals across the federal ministries and state agencies.The image reveals that wide-scale blockchain usage is still limited. Only about 15% of federal ministries and 5% of state agencies have fully adopted blockchain applications. Moderate uptake has been reported in around 35% of federal and 25% of state agencies, while the figure is low or not at all in 50% of federal and 70% of state bodies. The most active blockchain use cases are Digital assets tracking and procurement (38%) and verification of public records at 31%. Revenue collection ranks 22%, and anti-corruption monitoring follows with 19%. Other major shortfalls to adoption include skilled personnel shortage at 68%, poor regulatory frameworks at 62%, high implementation costs at 55%, and infrastructural gap issues at 50%. Readiness indicators suggest moderate policy framework availability-30% high; pilot programs-25% high; stakeholder training-20% high; and e-government integration-18% high.The rate of adoption is higher in federal agencies on account of better infrastructure and strong policy support, whereas state agencies are still lagging.