Problems and prospects of budgeting and budget implementation in Local Government System in Nigeria

Abstract

Local Government has historically provided services of importance to its citizens in rural and urban areas in Nigeria. These services include provision of basic amenities like water, roads, health facilities, education, etc. Of late, the role of local government in providing these services has attracted public concern. Furthermore, it has generated national crisis as a result of increasing rate of poverty among the rural people. Some scholars view this development to poor budgeting and implementation while others associate it to the federal and state government’s interference. In this work, we are focused on budgeting as it relates to the local government in Nigeria. The paper therefore, examines the sources of finance of the local government and its autonomy considering the nature of fiscal federalism in the country. It also tries to investigate the difficulties in budget process and implementation in Nigeria with emphasis on the local government.