Effective Revenue Mobilization and Sustainable Development in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

Governments at different levels have the responsibility of mobilizing revenue in order to meet the needs of the citizenry in terms of providing public goods and services, as well as ensuring the well being of their citizenry. Most states in Nigeria have had serious issues regarding residents' level of tax compliance leading to their undue dependence on statutory allocations from the federation account. However, Lagos state is reported to be the only state in Nigeria, capable of surviving without statutory allocation from the federal government. The paper examined the methodologies and strategies adopted by Lagos State government in achieving high level of revenue mobilization, in efforts to achieve sustainable development in Lagos state Nigeria. The study a descriptive research relied entirely on qualitative data. Primary data included statistical records and video documentary prepared by the Lagos Internal Revenue Service. Secondary data included books, scholarly peer- viewed articles, official government publications and newspapers. Data collected were content analyzed. The findings revealed that effective revenue mobilization in Lagos state was as a result of several factors such as; nature of leadership, patriotic nature of the political elite, high density population of the state, commercial nature of the state and willingness of the informal sector to comply with tax laws. We concluded that there is effective revenue mobilization in Lagos state and high level of compliance by both formal and informal sectors, this has positively impacted efforts at achieving sustainable development. Our recommendation is that there should be continuity in policy implementation and aggressive prosecution of tax defaulters as deterrent to others.