Effect of Apportioned Federal Revenue on Economic Growth: The Nigerian Experience

Abstract

The major objective of income distribution to the federal, state and local governments in Nigeria is to achieve economic growth which leads to economic development. This ultimate aim of governance in Nigeria appears not to have been achieved due to alleged corruption and mismanagement of the monthly allocated funds. Thus, this study investigates the effect of revenue apportioned to the three levels of government on economic growth in Nigeria.  The study employs annual time series data which cover a period from 1981-2016 and have been collected from CBN Statistical Bulletin, 2016 edition. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method is used to perform the multi-regression analysis with the aid of e-views version 9. The findings of the study reveal that the federally apportioned revenue to the federal government (FAFG) has a significant positive impact on RGDP while FALG has a robust significant positive impact on RGDP. The result also indicates that FASG has a significant negative influence on RGDP. This leads to a conclusion that mismanagement of funds by the state governments is a cause for concern. Therefore, the study suggests, among others, that revenue sharing formula in the country should be based more on impact of expenditure incurred on executed projects (long term and short term) by each tier of government than on any other parameter to achieve fairness and efficiency in public service delivery at all levels of governance.