E-Revenue Generation and Local Government Development in Nigeria: Empirical Evidence from Nasarawa State

Abstract

Local governments are faced with various challenges to source adequate funds for development drives and as such, ERevenue generation has been introduced to boost internally Generated Revenue in Karu Local Government Council (LGC). This study investigated the impact of E- Revenue Internally Generated on the actual revenue collected by Local Government in Nasarawa State and to analyze the extent to which E-Revenue generation is linked to the development of the selected local Government. Two Research questions and Two Hypotheses were formulated for the study. The study period covered six (6) years and three (3) quarters, spanning from the first quarter of 2013 to the fourth quarter of 2019. the period for pre E- Generation covered thirteen (13) quarters, spanning from the first quarter of 2013 to the third of 2016 while the period for post E-Revenue Generated covered thirteen (13) quarters, spanning from the second quarter of 2016 to the second quarter of 2019.The data analysis was carried out using Trend analysis and simple least square regression method (SPSS version 17) were adopted for the study. Karu Local Government Council was purposefully selected for the study. Secondary data from the financial statement of the Council for the stated period were sourced from the office of the Auditor General for Local Government. The t-statistics analysis was employed in testing the hypotheses. Findings of the study that E-Revenue Generation has a positive significant effect on actual revenue collected in the Council and secondly that there is a significant relationship between revenue generated and developmental effort of the Local government. The study concluded that Tax revenue and Non Tax revenue electronically generated are vital ingredients in improving the development drives of councils in Nasarawa State. Some recommendations were therefore offered in this regard.