Daniel Otera
The Kogi State Government’s new plan to conduct bi-annual audits of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and expenditure across its 21 local government areas has sparked renewed conversation about fiscal discipline, transparency, and the credibility of grassroots financial reporting.
Announced by the Auditor-General for Local Governments in Kogi, Alhaji Yakubu Adabenege, the initiative is aimed at tackling years of revenue leakages and underperformance in local government revenue generation. The mid-year audit is scheduled to begin within three months and will cover the financial activities of 2024.
“This audit is part of our statutory duty, but beyond that, it is a practical step to ensure that local governments begin to take responsibility for their financial health,” Adabenege said at a recent performance appraisal meeting with council chairmen and revenue officers in Lokoja.
“We want to see measurable improvements and reforms on the ground.”
The new audit model is designed to track IGR performance, plug leakages, and promote a results-driven fiscal culture across local councils.
Despite repeated reform efforts, many local governments in Kogi State continue to struggle with basic financial obligations including salary payments, infrastructure maintenance, and service delivery. Analysts attribute this to low IGR and weak financial controls at the local level.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Kogi State generated ₦18.2 billion in IGR during the 2022 fiscal year, ranking 25th out of Nigeria’s 36 states. Local governments reportedly contributed less than 15 per cent of that amount, highlighting deep-rooted inefficiencies in revenue mobilisation across the 21 LGAs.
A subnational audit scorecard by BudgIT, a civic-tech organisation, placed Kogi in the bottom tier for fiscal transparency and budget openness, citing limited access to local government-level financial data despite modest improvements in state-level disclosures.
Economic analysts believe that LGAs in commercial hubs like Lokoja, Okene, and Kabba-Bunu possess untapped revenue potential. However, challenges such as poor enforcement, informal transactions, and underreporting continue to hinder performance. The state’s heavy dependence on federal allocations further weakens local autonomy and service delivery.
As the state prepares to launch its mid-year assessment, audit professionals and transparency advocates have welcomed the development but with caution.
Elvis Osagiede, a business consultant and audit expert, told The Journal that the reform’s success hinges on the objectivity and independence of the audit process.
“The audit must ensure the documentation of objective reporting, which entails the provision of unbiased and transparent reports,” Mr Osagiede said.
“Without objectivity, even the best audit processes can lose public trust and effectiveness.”
He added that financial assessors must be shielded from political influence and that audit reports should be made public in a timely and accessible manner.
“The public has the right to know how their local governments generate and spend money. Transparency starts with truthful documentation,” he said.
Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) in Kogi and Chairman of Yagba West LGA, Tosin Olokun, described the audit as a “benchmark for genuine reform.”
“Some of the financial lapses uncovered from the 2024 records were due to poor documentation and under-reported revenue items,” Olokun said.
“This process gives all of us an opportunity to improve and learn from one another.”
He noted that peer review among LGAs based on audit outcomes could serve as a catalyst for healthy competition and encourage fiscal best practices across the state.
According to the Auditor-General, the audit will go beyond spreadsheets to include field assessments and direct engagement with council officials. Audit teams will evaluate revenue collection systems and the legal compliance of levies, taxes, and remittances.
“We have already introduced some of our directors to the councils so that when the audit begins, there will be no breakdown in communication or access,” Adabenege said.
The state plans to focus on historically under-reported revenue sources such as: market levies and motor park fees, liquor licences, tenement rates and signage fees, business premises registration and sand dredging permits (particularly in riverine LGAs). Many of these sources are often neglected due to informal collection processes, cash-based transactions, and lack of monitoring.
Earlier in 2025, the Kogi State Internal Revenue Service (KGIRS) revived tenement rate and ground rent collections through a digital land-use reform initiative. According to Daily Trust, the state is banking on property-related taxes to strengthen IGR at both the state and local levels.
A Punch report from March 2025 projected that Kogi LGAs could generate as much as ₦361 billion annually if tenement rates, market levies, and other grassroots revenue streams were fully tracked and enforced.
While the initiative has received applause from transparency advocates, analysts insist that genuine reform goes beyond announcing audits.
Kogi State has, however, recorded commendable milestones in the area of fiscal responsibility. In September 2023, it was ranked first in fiscal transparency and accountability among North-Central states, according to the North-Central Budget Transparency Survey conducted by the Social Economic Research and Development Centre (SERDEC). The assessment scored Kogi over 60 per cent in budget openness, procurement transparency, and civic engagement placing it ahead of Niger, Nasarawa, Plateau, Benue, and the FCT.
Further backing that recognition, BudgIT’s Subnational Budget Implementation Report showed that Kogi was among only 13 Nigerian states that implemented more than 80 per cent of their 2022 budgets recording approximately 86.1 per cent execution. The report credited the state’s performance to improved fiscal controls and a strengthened budget monitoring framework.
At the national level, Kogi was also among the top performers in the Federal Government’s State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Programme. In the 2019 Annual Performance Assessment published by the World Bank-assisted programme, the state scored 100 per cent across key indicators, including cash management, internal revenue improvements, adoption of a Treasury Single Account (TSA), and budget credibility.
Experts say that maintaining this record at the local government level will require more than policy pronouncements; it will demand political will, transparency in implementation, and sustained public oversight.