Efficient Financial Management for Local Governments: The Nigerian Experience

This article attempts to present the local governments’ executives with a number of options to consider as they deal with the complex and ever changing questions of financial management for the local community. The paper provides local government officials quick access to a framework of ideas and suggestions that work within the hierarchy of financial management. Finance is immensely important in the running of organizations or governments. Local governments need financial resources to carry out their constitutional responsibilities as regards providing social services as well as mobilizing available resources for effective rural development and good governance at the grass root level. However, investigation revealed that local government has performed below expectations as a result of poor fund management. This paper which deals with efficient financial management in local governments in Nigeria was written to articulate and discuss the instruments that will help the local government councils to manage their funds adequately and be able to perform their statutory duties accordingly. Specifically, we discussed the various tools and techniques of efficient financial management which could assist the local government with performing their roles. These are as follows: the use of budget, rational approach, incremental approach, zero-based budgeting approach, planning, programming and budgeting system, audit alarm, and auditing approach. A thorough adoption and application of these approaches will improve financial management of local governments in Nigeria and enhance the quality of service delivery at the grass root.