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National Bureau of Statistics building
About 352 Local Government Councils in 17 states and the Federal Capital Territory failed to remit or generate any revenue to the coffers of their respective state governments in 2023, data sourced from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.
This is coming amid the ongoing tussle to grant Local Governments financial autonomy.
An analysis of data from the Internally Generated Revenue of the councils recently published by the NBS revealed that the figure was an increase of 10 states from seven states that did not remit or generate revenue in 2022.
The statistics agency in the report said only 20, out of Nigeria’s 36 states, generated revenue from their Local Governments in 2023.
This situation underscores the financial challenges facing local governance and raises questions about the effective management of resources at the local level, particularly in the context of calls for greater autonomy and accountability.
In May, the Federal Government, represented by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, filed a lawsuit to challenge the governors’ authority to receive and withhold federal allocations meant for Local Government Areas.
The Supreme Court, on July 11, 2024, gave a landmark judgment affirming the financial autonomy of the 774 LGs in the country and ruled that governors could no longer control funds meant for the councils.
The apex court also directed the Accountant-General of the Federation to pay LG allocations directly to their accounts, as it declared the non-remittance of funds by the 36 states unconstitutional.
Barring any last-minute resistance from state governors, direct payment of statutory allocations to Local Government Areas will kick in by November 2024.
The decision marked a significant shift toward financial autonomy for local councils, strengthening their independence over internal revenue generation but also calling for increased monitoring of spending of their allocations.
According to the NBS, the states that recorded zero Local Government revenue in 2023 include Rivers (23 LGAs), Delta (25 LGAs), Kano (44 LGAs), Enugu (17 LGAs), Anambra (21 LGAs), Katsina (34 LGAs), and Plateau (17 LGAs).
Others are Nasarawa (13 LGAs), Zamfara (14 LGAs), Niger (25 LGAs), Bayelsa (eight LGAs), Benue (23 LGAs), Sokoto (23 LGAs), Adamawa (21 LGAs), Kebbi (21 LGAs), Yobe (17 LGAs) and and FCT (six LGAs).
Further analysis revealed that in 2023, the 20 states that generated revenue from LG activities collectively raised N37.05bn. This is a decline from 2022 when 29 states generated a total of N48.7bn.
In the year under review, Lagos led the list with N10.49bn, followed by Ebonyi with N6.13bn. Third on the list is Kwara with N3.35bn remittance.
Oyo state got N3.11bn, Jigawa (N2.89bn), Edo N2.59bn, Gombe (N2.09bn), Ondo (N1.39bn), Ogun (N1.31bn), Cross River (N701.34m), Taraba (N441m)
Kaduna (N382.22m), Akwa Ibom (N343.18m), Abia (N341.74m), Ekiti (N303.65m), Kogi (N289.73m).
Other states including Bauchi remitted N250.37m, Imo (N215.34m), Borno (N213.12m), and Osun (N204.42m).
