Abstract
Availability of adequate financial resources are desirous for any organization to achieve the purposes for which it is established. Local government councils in Nigeria are created statutorily to perform clearly assigned functions. Experience has however demonstrated that these councils have fallen short of achieving the objectives for which they were indorsed. Some reasons have been espoused by scholars for the failing performances of most local government councils in Nigeria. Against this backdrop, this study seeks to posit that local government councils are likely to achieve their set objectives to a large extent if their internally generated revenue (IGR) are expanded. Also, the study seeks to postulate the capacity of local government councils in Nigeria to sustainably expand their internally generated revenue (IGR) is inhibited by the kind of strategies adopted and by some critical challenges facing them. To enable the explication of the assumption, the study adopts a conscious survey of relevant literature on our subject matter. The data generated are systematically analyzed to verify the validity of the above assumptions. The study maintains that apart from the fact that the fiscal federalism apparently seem unfavourable to the local government functional responsivities, it has nevertheless the provided for adequate source for their internally generated revenue to augment the federally allocated funds. Again, sundry factors hinders the expansion internally generate revenue have been identified and recommendations for boosting IGR in local government councils in Nigeria have also been articulated.
Highlights
The major challenge confronting most local government councils in developing countries such as Nigeria is that of having a firm financial base to enable them pay for charges incurred for their respective administrative activities
Ugwu concludes that harnessing the internally generated revenue will assist the local government meet their needs. This implies to effectively harness revenue internally and taking into cognizance that achieving that goal is replete with debilitating problems, appropriate strategies to enhance the base of IGR in local government councils must be formulated and implemented
This study focuses on first examining the nature of internally generated revenue in local governments in Nigeria taking into considering the fact that IGR have tended to contribute very abysmally to the revenue bases of local government councils in the country
Summary
The major challenge confronting most local government councils in developing countries such as Nigeria is that of having a firm financial base to enable them pay for charges incurred for their respective administrative activities. Experience has shown that the expected financial bases local government councils have tended to become very unauthentic, given the straitened sources of internally generated revenue to complement the federally allocated source. The central problem has tended to be that of not sufficiently identifying, and adopting appropriate strategies for expanding their revenue bases internally. Achieving this objective would substantially assist in augmenting the apparently grossly inadequate external sources of funding. The paper argues as follows: that local government councils in Nigeria have ample sources of generating revenue internally; these sources must be clearly delineated and areas of responsibilities and accountabilities made; what is generated deposited in government treasury; problem of endemic corruption and other related vices tackled robustly; and, dependence on the federal government for “hand-outs” drastically reduced. The other area of critically is the flourishing financial and resource emasculation of local governments by their respective States governments
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