Martin

The digital economy is fast overtaking the traditional economy in many ways and may perhaps achieve over 80 percent displacement before the end of the century. With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the acceleration towards digitalization reached a blazar jet speed, with more people working remotely, shopping online, and using digital services. However, the pace and […]

Tax payment compliance gatekeeping has become a pragmatic response by subnational governments to the increasing financial pressure they face and the rising risks of defaults and evasion. Worsening economic conditions and palpable government insincerity are compelling citizens not to entrust their governments with a proportion of their earnings as taxes. Ennobled by the array of […]

Poorly contained waste desecrating the environment is one of the ugly characteristics defining many of our cities and peri-urban areas. Evidently, many states and local governments have difficulty controlling their garbage. Most of them only collect less than half of the generated waste. These inadequacies attract inordinate consequences, including diseases, air pollution, and plant, animal, […]

Like the police, the Internal Revenue Service [IRS] ensures that citizens comply with the law on paying their taxes. Tax payments are law-backed obligations demanding full compliance by individuals and corporations. And because the success of states and local governments in satisfying the good governance yearnings of their citizens substantially depends on the efforts of […]

Many subnational governments in Nigeria cannot generate enough money to meet their demands for more taxable assets. Yet it is wholesome that they continuously create tax bases at a matching pace to sustain independent revenue growth at levels consistent with population growth and modern public goods demands. But delivering on this expected goal is fraught […]

Communal efforts dominated economic growth and development in Nigeria’s pre- and post-colonial periods. Town unions, religious groups, women’s associations, age grades and so on rallied to build community schools, worship houses, markets, and other social infrastructures and collectively owned enterprises benefiting virtually everybody. Apart from public infrastructure, some communities also offered scholarships to their academically […]

Beyond the fees from motor licensing, which is all-vehicle embracing, commercial vehicles stand out as a significant source of revenue for subnational governments. As of 2018, commercial vehicles constitute approximately 56 percent of Nigeria’s 11.8 million vehicle population, according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics. The sea of yellow-painted ‘Danfo’ buses adorning Lagos State road […]

As we gradually approach May 29, the expectations are running high on the most efficacious therapeutics to manage the country’s massive socio-economic catastrophe and successfully navigate out of its current morass. Over the past eight years, an unequalled dark cloud of insecurity and economic hopelessness prevailed nationwide. National indebtedness hit the rooftops in a dimension […]

Independent revenue generation is central to the charge of local governments. The Nigerian three-tier federal structure specifies performance expectations from each level. Because it is the closest to the people, local governments are to champion grassroots development. It has some measure of constitutionally defined albeit nebulous fiscal autonomy to perform this role effectively. That autonomy […]