Gambia: 2025 Open Budget Survey Sees Highest Score, Ranks 3rd in Region

• The Gambia scored 36 out of 100 on budget transparency in the 2025 Open Budget Survey, unveiled on August 25, 2026.
• This score ranked The Gambia third among assessed Sub-Saharan African countries, behind Sierra Leone (50) and Senegal (42).
• Despite being its highest score to date, The Gambia's 2025 result is 25 points below the 61-point benchmark for informed public debate.
• The Open Budget Survey, an independent assessment, evaluates public access to central government budget information across 83 nations.
• The Gambia's transparency level is still classified as insufficient, indicating ongoing challenges in public access to financial data.

Despite this notable improvement and its third-place regional standing, The Gambia's fiscal transparency level remains classified as insufficient, falling 25 points short of the 61-point benchmark deemed necessary for fostering informed public debate.

The Gambia has achieved a notable third-place ranking among the Sub-Saharan African nations evaluated in the 2025 Open Budget Survey, according to findings released by Gambia Participates on Tuesday, August 25, 2026. The country secured a score of 36 out of 100 for budget transparency, positioning it ahead of both Nigeria and Ghana within the selected regional comparison. Sierra Leone led the group with a score of 50, followed by Senegal at 42, while Nigeria registered 24 and Ghana 22.

This 2025 Open Budget Survey result marks a significant improvement for The Gambia, representing its highest transparency score since its initial participation in the assessment. Despite this progress, the score of 36 remains considerably below the 61-point benchmark that the survey identifies as the minimum standard for governments to provide sufficient budget information to support informed public debate. The country's transparency level is still categorized as insufficient by the survey's criteria.

The 2025 findings underscore a substantial shift in The Gambia's regional standing compared to previous years. In 2019, The Gambia scored a mere four points, placing it behind Ghana (54), Senegal (46), Sierra Leone (39), Liberia (38), and Nigeria (21). By 2025, The Gambia's score had increased to 36, allowing it to surpass Nigeria and Ghana in the Sub-Saharan African comparison, demonstrating a positive trajectory in its Gambia budget transparency ranking.

The Open Budget Survey (OBS) serves as the world's sole independent, comparative, and fact-based research instrument, employing internationally recognized criteria to evaluate public access to central government budget information. The 2025 assessment represents the tenth edition of this comprehensive survey, encompassing 83 countries globally. The Gambia participated in this assessment for the fourth time, having previously taken part in 2019, 2021, and 2023.

The survey meticulously measures the extent to which governments provide citizens with access to information regarding how public resources are raised and subsequently spent. It assesses the availability, timeliness, and comprehensiveness of eight crucial budget documents: the Executive's Budget Proposal, Pre-Budget Statement, Enacted Budget, Citizens Budget, In-Year Reports, Mid-Year Review, Year-End Report, and Audit Report. Countries are scored on a scale from zero to 100, utilizing 106 equally weighted indicators to determine their fiscal transparency score.

Beyond transparency, the OBS also examines two other major areas: budget oversight and public participation. For the transparency component, a score of 61 or higher indicates that a government is likely publishing enough material to facilitate informed public debate on its national budget. The Gambia's 2025 score of 36, therefore, highlights that despite its improved regional standing, public access to comprehensive budget information remains insufficient according to the survey's established standards for Gambia public finance oversight.

Despite the significant improvement in its 2025 Open Budget Survey score, The Gambia still faces considerable challenges in achieving adequate fiscal transparency. The country's score of 36 places it 25 points below the critical 61-point threshold, which signifies a government's commitment to providing sufficient budget information for meaningful public discourse. This persistent gap underscores the ongoing limitations in public access to detailed financial data, impacting the overall Gambia fiscal transparency score.

The trajectory of The Gambia's performance in the Open Budget Survey reveals a clear pattern of progress from its initial score of just four points in 2019 to its current high of 36. This increase not only reflects internal efforts but also led to a more favorable position within the Open Budget Survey Sub-Saharan Africa comparison, as the country moved ahead of Nigeria and Ghana. However, the overarching classification of its transparency level as 'insufficient' indicates that fundamental issues in public finance oversight and information dissemination persist.

For legal professionals and entities engaged in due diligence or advising on public procurement and government contracts within The Gambia, these findings suggest continued hurdles. The insufficient availability of comprehensive budget information can complicate assessments of financial risk and accountability. Lawyers must therefore counsel clients on the potential transparency risks and the constrained access to public financial data, emphasizing the need for robust risk mitigation strategies in such an environment.

This indicates continued challenges for legal professionals conducting due diligence or advising on public procurement and government contracts in The Gambia, as access to comprehensive budget information remains insufficient despite improvements. Lawyers should advise clients on potential transparency risks and the limited availability of public financial data.

Source: Original reporting based on findings unveiled by Gambia Participates.