Buhari Launches App For Monitoring Capital Projects

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday in Abuja launched Eyemark, a digital application that empowers Nigerians to monitor and evaluate capital projects in real-time, with unrestricted access to information on stakeholders, including contract terms and the contractors.

Launching the application at the Council Chamber of the State House, Buhari said the innovation would help to forestall the practice of abandoning projects as all stakeholders, like communities, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), contractors, Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), and Nigerians would continually interact on one platform.

A statement by the Special Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity), Femi Adesina, said the president noted that Eyemark, which would provide a regular update on the status of capital projects across the country through bottom-up interactive processes, would be fully involved at every stage, including knowing the cost, structure, benefit, and framework for maintenance after project completion.

“The Eyemark application tackles the two major constraints we have faced as a country in our monitoring and evaluation efforts. Eyemark introduces a digital approach to monitoring & evaluation in the Federal Government that gives MDAs the ability to harness geospatial and project implementation data on a continuous basis.

“Furthermore, the constraint of limited monitoring and evaluation personnel is addressed by utilizing a bottom-up approach through crowdsourcing geotagged data from Nigerians in every part of the country. Not only does this address the pressing monitoring and evaluation issues, but it also institutes accountability and transparency in the system, in line with my commitment to Nigerians and the Open Government Partnership.

“With the Eyemark application, Nigerians worldwide can access project information with the click of a button. Project data such as its status, timeline, executing contractors, the amount appropriated and spent so far, amongst others, are now available in the public space.

“With the ability for citizens to give reviews and feedback in real-time on projects around them, we are closing the existing gaps and promoting participation in governance. Due to its decentralised nature, the Eyemark application brings together all project stakeholders to the table, such as Contractors and Civil Society Organisations in addition to MDAs and Citizens.

“This means that we must all play our roles in the success of project implementation through Eyemark. As such, the Eyemark application should be used by all Federal MDAs as the primary tool for project monitoring and evaluation,’’ he said.

He also charged MDAs and the State Governments to liaise in extending the effort across all the tiers of government in the country, so as to promote a more robust and contextual database of projects.

“I am extremely delighted to launch and deploy the Eyemark application as the primary tool for Monitoring and Evaluating Federal Government Projects. I do this remembering the words of the Global CEO of the Open Government Partnership as he mentioned that the Eyemark application is “the first nationally coordinated citizens’ driven web application that aligns with Open Governance Partnership Strategy that he has come across in the World” and that he believes “it is an excellent innovation that Nigeria can share with other nations of the World.” Let us make the system work,’’ he added.

Buhari stressed that Eyemark would remain an official tool for monitoring and evaluating Federal Government’s capital projects, adding that the essence is to ensure that projects are successful and impactful to Nigerians and the country’s economy.

“The aim of this Government is to secure its people through providing a strong economy, protection from external forces and an enabling environment for citizens and businesses to thrive. To achieve this goal, we embark on multiple large, medium, and small-scale projects, running into tens of thousands of projects yearly. These projects are carefully planned collaborative efforts, each aimed at achieving a predetermined goal.

“To ensure that these projects are successful and impactful to Nigerians and our economy, I believe it is critical for their implementation to be monitored and evaluated at their various stages. However, the state of the country’s Monitoring and Evaluation method has seen thousands of well-meaning capital projects abandoned or poorly implemented over the years.

‘Although corruption, which this administration has fought and continues to fight, has played a role in the alarming number of poorly executed and abandoned projects in the country, we must look beyond it and simultaneously tackle the other contributing factors.

“Top of which is our current paper-based method of Monitoring and Evaluation coupled with the overwhelming ratio of projects to Monitoring and Evaluation personnel. We cannot realistically expect a few individuals to effectively monitor tens of thousands of projects appropriated for during each budgetary cycle,’’ Buhari said.