CHAPTER ONE

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The performance of any local government is subject of the availability of adequate funds, which it can generate and use to finance its even increasing responsibilities. In the recent time local government has generated a lot of interest in the national polities as a result of its strategic influence and impact on the life of the citizen of the grassroots.

          Local government activities are fundamental as they affect the basic daily lives of the rural and urban dwellers. Its is crucial role of the local government that led to the local government emerging in 1976 as a governments in Nigeria have a quiet of function to carry out and it is only when money is available and fairly adequate that the objective can be carried out.

          In the years since 1976 local government reforms, the finances of local government in Nigeria have undergone significant structural and institutional changes. Among other things those changes have manifested in substantially higher financial transfer to the local government. In spite of that development however the position of the local government finances especially when viewed within the wider content of the Nigeria economy remains unimpressive. In recent years, local government finances account for only about one percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Equally too, problem associated with inadequate of funding continue to remain quite high among factors most frequently identified as militating against the ability of local government to effectively perform their statutory devolved functions Fika (1997:8).