Can anyone tell me what the average annual local government budget in Nigeria is?? I have tried to educate myself by looking for figures all over the web - all to no avail!
It would be really helpful if anyone with an insight into the activities of this level of government could please furnish us with some figures. There is so little known about the activities of local governments, such little oversight! it is pathetic!

Nigeria1/:

google this word " fmf nigeria allocation"

With this, i hereby tip my hat for you as a man that knows enuf about our motherland.

Fhemmmy:

With this, i hereby tip my hat for you as a man that knows enough about our motherland.

Abi, just that his is a case of right motive with the wrong method.

wow nigeria1 was useful for once

on average about 1billion Naira.

But they dont get this as the Governor sits on it.

Thank you for the answers - Fhemmy and Landis, I found that they adequately answered my question and fed my curiosity.
Fhemmy, my statement earlier was not an indictment of the people or citizens but was rather a sad observation about the state of affairs in Nigeria where simple public statictics and information can be so tough to come by, especially at the local government level. Sometimes you wonder how the National media lets them get away with so little oversight and transparency!

According to the constitution, Nigeria has 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs).
Each local government area is administered by a Local Government Council consisting of a chairman who is the Chief Executive of the LGA, and other elected members who are referred to as Councillors.
The functions of Local Governments are detailed in the Nigerian Constitution and include:
1.   Economic recommendations to the State;
2.   Collection of taxes and fees;
3.   Establishment and maintenance of cemeteries, burial grounds and homes for the destitute or infirm;
4.   Licensing of bicycles, trucks (other than mechanically propelled trucks), canoes, wheel barrows and carts;
5.   Establishment, maintenance and regulation of markets, motor parks and public conveniences;
6.   Construction and maintenance of roads, streets, drains and other public highways, parks, and open spaces;
7.   Naming of roads and streets and numbering of houses;
8.   Provision and maintenance of public transportation and refuse disposal;
9.   Registration of births, deaths and marriages;
10. Assessment of privately owned houses or tenements for the purpose of levying such rates as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly of a State;  Control and Regulation of Out-door advertising, Retail Shops and kiosks, Restaurants and other places for sale of food and commodities to the public.

It is obvious from the above that Nigerian Local governments do not have a whole lot of responsibilities when compared to their counterparts in other Nations. It is also true that some parts of this constitutional mandate have been overtaken by the passage of time and are thus, for all intents and purposes, completely obsolete and of no consequence whatsoever!
Regardless of this, however, most Nigerian Local government areas get allocated an average of N1.0 Billion - N1.5 Billion per annum (federal Ministry of Finance website). This may not be a lot of money by developed Nation's standards but it is certainly a heck of a lot more than we do see and enjoy in terms of services and provisions from these government agencies with regards to their responsibilities. I asked the question of budgetary allocation from my fellow nairalanders because I had been unable to get concrete information to either support or disprove a little experiment I have been working on. I had spent the last several weeks developing what I thought should be a reasonable and achievable budget implementation and development program for an any Nigerian Local government area. I used my local government area of Ondo West as a case study, absorbing their problems and difficulties and using it to guide my conceptual budgetary allocation to fund the various Local government functions, programs and policy implements.


In my experiment, I set up a budget using an Excel spreadsheet software and inputing all necessary variables and fixed factors. My assumption was that the Local government would have a budget in the neighbourhood of N1.2 billion (which I have now found to be pretty accurate). What I discovered was that a Local Government could maintain 12 fully funded departments namely – Public Works Dept., Sanitation & Refuse Management Dept., Health Dept., Planning & Permit Dept., Public Records Dept., Business Registry & Services Dept., Internal Revenue & Finance Dept., Human Resources & Personnel Dept., Fleet Management Dept., Fire & Emergency services Dept. and the Executive Office. I also went on to add an Education department, even though I know this responsibility is not demanded of a LG, however, I felt that it would be socially irresponsible for a LG to neglect to invest and assist in ensuring the provision of quality education for the children in its constituent. Although the specific organizational structure can be contested and configured different from mine, however, it should not take away from the overall effectiveness of the Local government function. Taking the structure listed above, I estimated a fully employed staff strength of 500 workers being paid an average of N420,000.00 per annum each (I know this is far higher than currently prevails, but it is the least we can do if we truly expect commitment and loyalty from these employees). This works works out to cost the LG just N210,000,000.00 (N210 million) for the year. To simplify my conclusions here, I will split LG expenditures into (4) four types: Recurrent Expenditure (Salaries); Operational Expenditure (Rent, Utility bills, hardware, software, tools, fixtures, furnitures & fuel) and Capital Expenditure (Public Projects) and Procurements (Equipments, Machineries & Vehicles). My budgetary tools reflect the following: N210,000,000.00 (N210 million) for Salaries and Wages; N182,500,000.00 (N182.5 million) for Operational expenditure; and N547,500,000.00 (N547.5 million) for Capital expenditures (Public projects) and for equipment procurement priorities, I will estimate an expenditure of N229,200,000.000 which when pro-rated over a period of 4 years at 8.5% interest rate, the annual cost to the LG will be only N67,793,000.00 (N67.793 million). From the above, we can easily deduce the total annual budget of N1,007,793,000.00 (approx. N1.008 billion) which is lower than the expected average local government annual income. This makes for a budget surplus!


In the light of my conclusive discovery and the aforementioned responsibilities stated in the constitution, I find it appalling that our local government leaders have been so hopelessly incompetent and incapable of bringing the slightest glimmer of hope to the people, unable to accomplish anything of purposeful significance, even the most basic services for the people in their jurisdictions have been neglected and at its very best, is a pathetic attempt at ostentatious government function. The magnitude of such irresponsible decadence and mind bogling corruption as is being exhibited by these leaders while flounting an absolute disregard for accountability, transperency and a total dereliction of duty which is awash with bullish and unashamed malfeasance leaves me seething with anger!. It is difficult form me to fanthom how much more the people and the Nation can take! Indeed, we who are blessed with a higher understanding and capacity to make a difference need to overcome our indifference and make a decisive effort to be what we have been called to be - responsible leaders!

@ Midas02

You based your conclusions on the fact that these Local Govts only collect money from the Fed Govt
Some of them generated as much from internally generated revenues

The level of corruption at the Local Govt is more profound!
The mentallity is ' collect and share'

oldie: @ Midas02

You based your conclusions on the fact that these Local Govts only collect money from the Fed Govt
Some of them generated as much from internally generated revenues

The level of corruption at the Local Govt is more profound!
The mentallity is ' collect and share'

Thanks for your observation, which sadly is still relevant today, almost six years after this thread was opened.
Yet most of us CLUELESSLY focus our attention SOLELY on the federal/executive aka president as "government"

Can anyone tell me what the average annual local government budget in Nigeria is??

Test the FOI bill. Write the ministry of finance.

Go contest for councillor

[quote author=Midas02 post=3018138]According to the constitution, Nigeria has 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs).
Each local government area is administered by a Local Government Council consisting of a chairman who is the Chief Executive of the LGA, and other elected members who are referred to as Councillors.
The functions of Local Governments are detailed in the Nigerian Constitution and include:
1.   Economic recommendations to the State;
2.   Collection of taxes and fees;
3.   Establishment and maintenance of cemeteries, burial grounds and homes for the destitute or infirm;
4.   Licensing of bicycles, trucks (other than mechanically propelled trucks), canoes, wheel barrows and carts;
5.   Establishment, maintenance and regulation of markets, motor parks and public conveniences;
6.   Construction and maintenance of roads, streets, drains and other public highways, parks, and open spaces;
7.   Naming of roads and streets and numbering of houses;
8.   Provision and maintenance of public transportation and refuse disposal;
9.   Registration of births, deaths and marriages;
10. Assessment of privately owned houses or tenements for the purpose of levying such rates as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly of a State;  Control and Regulation of Out-door advertising, Retail Shops and kiosks, Restaurants and other places for sale of food and commodities to the public.

It is obvious from the above that Nigerian Local governments do not have a whole lot of responsibilities when compared to their counterparts in other Nations. It is also true that some parts of this constitutional mandate have been overtaken by the passage of time and are thus, for all intents and purposes, completely obsolete and of no consequence whatsoever!
Regardless of this, however, most Nigerian Local government areas get allocated an average of N1.0 Billion - N1.5 Billion per annum (federal Ministry of Finance website). This may not be a lot of money by developed Nation's standards but it is certainly a heck of a lot more than we do see and enjoy in terms of services and provisions from these government agencies with regards to their responsibilities. I asked the question of budgetary allocation from my fellow nairalanders because I had been unable to get concrete information to either support or disprove a little experiment I have been working on. I had spent the last several weeks developing what I thought should be a reasonable and achievable budget implementation and development program for an any Nigerian Local government area. I used my local government area of Ondo West as a case study, absorbing their problems and difficulties and using it to guide my conceptual budgetary allocation to fund the various Local government functions, programs and policy implements.


In my experiment, I set up a budget using an Excel spreadsheet software and inputing all necessary variables and fixed factors. My assumption was that the Local government would have a budget in the neighbourhood of N1.2 billion (which I have now found to be pretty accurate). What I discovered was that a Local Government could maintain 12 fully funded departments namely – Public Works Dept., Sanitation & Refuse Management Dept., Health Dept., Planning & Permit Dept., Public Records Dept., Business Registry & Services Dept., Internal Revenue & Finance Dept., Human Resources & Personnel Dept., Fleet Management Dept., Fire & Emergency services Dept. and the Executive Office. I also went on to add an Education department, even though I know this responsibility is not demanded of a LG, however, I felt that it would be socially irresponsible for a LG to neglect to invest and assist in ensuring the provision of quality education for the children in its constituent. Although the specific organizational structure can be contested and configured different from mine, however, it should not take away from the overall effectiveness of the Local government function. Taking the structure listed above, I estimated a fully employed staff strength of 500 workers being paid an average of N420,000.00 per annum each (I know this is far higher than currently prevails, but it is the least we can do if we truly expect commitment and loyalty from these employees). This works works out to cost the LG just N210,000,000.00 (N210 million) for the year. To simplify my conclusions here, I will split LG expenditures into (4) four types: Recurrent Expenditure (Salaries); Operational Expenditure (Rent, Utility bills, hardware, software, tools, fixtures, furnitures & fuel) and Capital Expenditure
chair man try contest councillor or chairmsn if you hold enough. Thats what i plan to do anyway

Problems of Local Government Budgeting In Nigeria

http://www.studentsdiary.net/articles/problems-local-government-budgeting-nigeria/

Effectiveness of Budget and Budgetary Control in the Local Government System With Reference To Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State

Budget and budgetary control is very crucial to the effective planning and control in an organization, this is because Government at any level announces their budget before the beginning of every financial year, they state the objectives they anticipate to attain the objectives...

http://www.scharticles.com/effectiveness-of-budget-and-budgetary-control-in-the-local-government-system/