Nigerians paid N40bn as road taxes to states in 2023

The Federal Government’s National Bureau of Statistics has reported that Nigerians paid N40.14bn in road taxes to state governments in 2023, according to the recently published Internally Generated Revenue report by the NBS.

The amount collected represents a 63.36 per cent increase from the N24.57bn collected in 2022, highlighting the growing importance of road taxes in state-level finances.

Lagos State, Nigeria’s economic centre, topped all states with N16.74bn in road tax revenue for 2023. Despite collecting no road tax revenue in 2022, the state accounted for 41.7 per cent of total road tax revenue in 2023. Ebonyi State recorded a remarkable 3,804.32 per cent increase, rising from N72.95m in 2022 to N2.85bn in 2023.

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Several other states showed significant increases, with Rivers State recording a 270.66 per cent rise, collecting N830.01m up from N223.93m in 2022. Sokoto State’s collections grew by 41.22 per cent to N194.66m, while Yobe State saw a 30.4 per cent increase to N81.88m.

However, some states experienced sharp decreases. Enugu State reported a 95.12 per cent drop, from N1.1bn to N53.47m, while Katsina State saw a steep decline of 79.34 per cent to N29.3m from N141.81m. Niger State faced a significant reduction, with revenue falling 53.41 per cent to N190.49m from N408.83m, and Cross River recorded a 62.54 per cent fall from N3.26bn to N1.22bn.

The Federal Capital Territory reported no road tax revenue in 2023, a significant gap given its administrative importance.