Assessing the Level of Utilisation of Sources of Financing in the FCT Area Councils, Abuja

Rural development is imperative and a sin-qua-non for the overall development of a Nation. On this premise, this paper assesses the extent of the utilization of the available sources of financing in three Area Councils (ACs) (Abaji, Bwari and Gwagwalada) of the FCT, Abuja in relation to their performance. The level of utilization of the financing sources by the Area Councils was particularly examined based on the perception of the respondents on the following statements: ACs utilize all the financing sources in their domains; Much of ACs finances are not utilized for rural development; Rural development is not a priority of the ACs; Some sources are not utilized because they yield low returns; Some are not utilized because they are not viable; and, Some are not enforceable. The study is anchored on mobilization and integrated rural development theories. It adopted survey research design, and employed both primary and secondary sources of data. The primary sources include the administration of questionnaire to 274 respondents and field observation, while, the secondary data was sourced from the records of the selected Area councils (2009-2013), books and periodicals among others. The primary data was analyzed with the help of Ms Excel and SPSS software; Kruskal-Wallis H-test statistics was used to test the hypothesis. Findings of the study reveals that, the Area Councils do not utilize the available sources of their financing effectively owing to lack of financial autonomy and capacity to explore, low yield from some sources, poor state of development of their vast lands/districts, corruption, misappropriation and misapplication of finances. The study recommends for the provision of basic infrastructures in the new districts; review of revenue tariff to reflect current realities; and the amendment of the 1999 constitution for direct allocation to LGs among others.

authority of the council and of the state are affected, and ii) Proposals made by the said commission or body; b. Collection of rates, radio and television licences; c. Establishment and maintenance of cemeteries, burial grounds and homes for the destitutes or infirm; d. Licensing of bicycles, trucks (other than mechanically propelled trucks) canoes, wheel barrows and carts; e. Establishment, maintenance and regulation of slaughter houses, slaughter slabs, markets and motor parks; f. Construction and maintenance of roads, streets, street lightings, drains and other public highways, parks, gardens, open spaces, or such public facilities as may be prescribed from time to time by the House of Assembly of a state; g. Naming of roads, streets and numbering of houses; h. Provision and maintenance of public conveniences, sewage and refuse disposal; i. Registration of all births, deaths and marriages; j. Assessment of privately owned houses or tenements for the purpose of levying such rates as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly of a state; and k. Control and regulation of i. Out-door advertising and hoarding, ii.
Movement and keeping of pets of all description, iii.
Shops and kiosks, iv.
Restaurants, bakeries and other places for sale of food to the public, v.
Laundries and Licensing, regulation and control of the sale of liquor. Also, the functions of a local government council shall include participation of such council in the Government of a state as regards the following: a. The provision and maintenance of primary, adult and vocational education; b. The development of agriculture and natural resources, other than the exploitation of minerals; c. The provision and maintenance of health services, and Such other functions as may be conferred on a local government council by the House of Assembly of the State (FRN, 1999).
However, in spite of the greater autonomy, powers and functions to local governments, they still have a long way to go towards the satisfactory performance of their functions in many areas (Onah, 1995). The above declaration is in consonant with the present state of affairs in the local government system in Nigeria. Local governments have wide range of financing sources; from external to internally generated ones that they could utilize to achieve development, yet there is no corresponding proof on the ground to show for the abundant resources. Local governments have vast opportunities to increase their financial standing and hence autonomy through aggressive financial mobilization. But they hardly do, especially as they shy away from the collection of personal income tax from the citizenry and tenement rates for political reasons.
Structurally, Nigerian local governments encounter some kinds of inferior recognition by the Federal and State governments (Imhanlahimi and Ikeanyibe, 2009). Thus, in spite of the legal and constitutional provisions, FCT Area Councils (LGs) do have conflicts with the FCT authority in taping from some financing sources. These belittling attitudinal relationships actually, to an extent, erode local governments' autonomy and capacity. Hardearned and limited resources accrued to and raised by local government are always mismanaged and misappropriated. The need for rural development, calls for a renew interest in the area of utilization of local government financing sources, as the ways their monies are being spent seems not to yield the desired result. The monies available to local governments were not judiciously spent on the provision of basic needs that can effectively improve people's living standards. Cases abound where public money were wasted by the local government councils in building stadia in very remote areas (Ovaga, 2009), and gigantic motor parks, such as Dobi motor park in Gwagwalada Area Council, Abuja where the people do not have sufficient drinking water and good roads is a case in point.
According to Mackenzie (1954) and Ola (1988), local government exists to provide services to the teeming population under its domain, and must be judged by its success in providing the services. And, Adedeji (1969) asserted that, the success and the effectiveness of local government depend largely on the financial resources available to the individual local authorities, and the way these resources are utilized. The local governments are expected to harness all the available resources in their custody to enable them achieve their objectives. But, considering their state of affairs in Nigeria, one is constrained to ask if all the resources available to them are being effectively mobilized and utilized for the benefit of the rural communities, they are expected to cater for? In other words, the decline in the provision of basic amenities for the upliftment of the rural environment might be due to wrong mobilisation and utilization of their available financial resources. It is in view of the above assertions that this paper seeks to find out how local governments in FCT, Abuja have been effectively utilizing their available financing sources in providing the required social services and other developmental needs for the teeming rural populace. Specifically, the study assesses the extent in which the available financing sources are utilized by the European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905(Paper) ISSN 2222-2839(Online) Vol.12, No.19, 2020 44 Area Councils for development.

Conceptual clarification
Local government has been conceptualised differently by different people across the globe. It is defined by the 1976 Nigeria LG reforms document as: Government at local level exercise through representative council established by law to exercise specific powers within defined areas. These powers should give the council substantial control over local affairs as well as the staff and institutional and financial powers to initiate and direct the provision of services and to determine and implement projects so as to compliment the activities of the state and federal government in their areas and to ensure, through devolution of functions to their councils and through the active participation of the people and traditional institutions, but that local initiative and response to local needs and condition are maximized (FRN, 1976). This definition is exhaustive and tries to cover much ground in explaining the meaning of local government administration. It is a form of public administration which in a majority of contexts, exists as the lowest tier of administration within a given state. Local Government is, by designation and ascription, the level of government (third tier) closest to the people and most directly concerned with their day to day dealings. Local government is a product of the need for decentralization in order to promote development from below (Bello-Imam, 2007). It is then, created to bridge the gap in lines of political communication and development between the centre (federal and state government) and the periphery (rural communities). This agenda of development is undermined by political impunity, the master-servant relationship between tiers of government, the fluidity in the tenure of local government Chairmen (reduced to one year in Nasarawa and Adamawa states in 2014) and the preference for caretaker committees system over elected councils against extant democratic principles (Otinche, 2014;Sarka, 2016). These blatant abuses have implications for the autonomy and capability of local government to effecting rural development.
Development has been conceptualized from two broad perspectives; economic and holistic. The economic perspective is concern with issues of poverty, unemployment, inequality and illiteracy, which must be reduced to usher in development to any area or country. If these declines in a society, the earlier version insisted, then there is development (Seers, 1969;Otinche, 2013). The other, perspective in the conceptualization of development was by writers like Todaro & Smith (2003) who have presented a holistic definition. They conceived development as a multidimensional process involving major changes in social structures, popular attitudes, and national institutions, as well as the acceleration of economic growth, the reduction of inequality and the eradication of absolute poverty. In essence, development must represent the whole gamut of change by which an entire social system, tuned to the diverse basic needs and desires of individuals and social groups within that system, moves away from condition of life widely perceived as unsatisfactory toward a situation or condition of life regarded as materially and spiritually better. This definition of development is therefore holistic, encompassing all aspects of life, including political, economic, social, cultural, religious, physical, etc. These can be further amplified to include all the good aspects of life that people cherish, make them feel relevant and enjoy their lives to the full. The political aspect would include issues like political participation, freedom of choice, free, fair and credible election etc (Omoruyi, 2004). Development as recently conceptualised embraces the total development of man and his environment in all ramifications in an area on sustainable basis. This is better done through governmental autonomy, which the LGs handle at the grassroots or rural setting.
Rural development may refer to the structural transformation of the rural economy via the socio-cultural and political economy of the rural dwellers for the attainment of better living. Okoye & Onyukwu (2007) defined rural development as scheme for raising the real incomes of rural dwellers, improving their environment and infrastructures and enhancing their welfare. This means that rural development is a strategy designed to improve the economic and social conditions of people living in rural areas. It involves extending the benefit of development to those who seek livelihood in rural areas. At a broader view, it can be seen as mass mobilization of human and material resources to achieve economic growth and national development (Akhakpe et al, 2012). The conditions necessary for rural development to take place include: organization of rural producers and rural economic activities on competitive or communal basis in order to ensure a fuller utilization of available physical and human resources; an active policy of social services involving the improvement of social services and social relation; improvement in political and administrative capacity for planning and implementation of community development strategy to provide linkages with rest of the economy; more equitable distribution of land other rural resources in order to give greater opportunity to the poorest segment of the rural population to meet their basic needs; diversification of rural economy to provide additional employments and improve the quality of rural life (Aziz, 1978). Lele (in Okoli, 1995) believes that a proper combination and coordination of the above reviewed factors would lead to the improvement in the lots of the rural populace.
Financing of Local Government in Nigeria comes from two main sources; internal and external sources. Internal sources are those through which local governments derive their funds internally. The internal sources of revenue have been classified as follows: and Overpayment in lieu of Registration Notices. The external sources comprise statutory allocations from the federation account and state governments as well as Value Added Tax (VAT), grants and borrowing (FRN, 1999).

Theoretical Framework
We anchor the paper on mobilization and integrated rural development theories. The mobilization school of thought sees mobilization as the process of pooling together, harnessing, activating, actualizing and utilizing potential human and material resources for the purpose of development. It is a process whereby human beings are made aware of the resources at their disposal and also motivated and energized to collectively utilize such resources for the improvement of their spiritual and material well being (Obanure, 1988). TheAgricultural Development Projects (ADPs) launched in 1972, Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) associated with Obasanjo's military regime in 1976 and the Green Revolution Programme of former President Shehu Shagari were based on this theory ( Ganduje, 2020;Akhakpe et al, 2012). Integrated rural development theory is a multidimensional strategy for improving the quality of life of the rural people. It is based on the premise that the socio-economic framework of the traditional rural system is obsolete; therefore, integrated rural development strategies are designed to change this framework and promote structural changes in the society (Chalton in Ujo, 1999). The Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI), Better Life/Family Support Programmes and River Basin Development Authorities (RBDA), and Community and Social Development Project (CSDP) of Babangida's and Obasanjo's military and civilian administrations are classic examples of this approach to community and rural development in Nigeria (Ganduje, 2020). Therefore, the anchoring of the mobilization and integrated rural development schools in this study is germane on the ground that, the LGs ought to effectively explore and utilise all their available financing resources to meet their developmental objectives.

Methodology
This study was domicile in Abuja, the Nigeria's Federal Capita Territory. The FCT is situated in the north central zone of Nigeria, bordered to the North by Kaduna State, to the East by Nasarawa State, to the South West by Kogi State, and to the West by Niger State. It has a land mass of 8,000 square kilometers and falls within latitude 7 0 25 I N and 9 0 20 0 North of the Equator d Longitude 5 0 45 I and 7 0 39 I as shown in figure 1.

Figure1: Map of FCT showing the Area Councils
Source: Abuja Master Plan The study adopted survey research design and used both primary and secondary data. Primary data was obtained by the administration of questionnaire to 274 respondents, 11% of the 2,487 study population. The questionnaire was drafted using five point scale of Rensis Likert format to elicit response on the extent in which the financing sources of the Area Councils were utilized. Secondary data was sourced from the concerned area councils' financial and general reports, budgets as well as other relevant literature. The study selected Abaji, Bwari and Gwagwalada (three), out of the six Area Councils in the FCT for study to represent the local government system in the Territory, considering their geographical spread and rural leaning. To achieve the study's objectives, a purposive sampling method was adopted in the three selected area councils, in recognition of the respondents' roles and knowledge in the subject matter. Moreover, the size of a sample is determined by a combination of technical issues as well as human and financial considerations (Obasi, 1999), and as declared by Nwana (1981), 'If the population is a few hundreds, a 40% or more sample will do; if many hundreds a 20% sample will do; if a few thousands a 10% sample will do; and if several thousands, a 5% or less sample will do'.   Table 3 shows the level(s) of educational qualification of the respondents. The result indicates majority of respondents, 69% have undergone formal education, while, 31% do not have formal education among the respondents. This implies that most of the information gathered is from enlightened populace. It means the data collected were reliable.  Table 4 above shows the number of years the respondents put in the area council's service/ leadership position. The indication from the table revealed majority, 72% have spent over 6years in their respective positions, while 28% spent between 1-5years. This means, the bulk of the information for this work came from the people who are experienced and have prolonged interaction with the system.

Utilization of available sources of Financing and Rural Development in Area Councils
The respondents were asked to indicate if the selected Area Councils Utilize all the financing sources in their domains, and their responses were presented in table 5. LGs in Nigeria are supposed to utilise all the financing sources in their domains to achieve rural development. Findings from this study show that, 24.9%, 25.9% and 24% in Abaji, Bwari and Gwagwalada respectively agreed with the statement that Area Councils Utilize all the available sources of financing in their domain, while 65.3%, 74.1% and 64% in Abaji, Bwari and Gwagwalada respectively disagreed. And, about 7.7% in Abaji, 7.4% in Bwari and 24% in Gwagwalada Area Councils are not certain. This item has a mean score of 2.45, 1.11of standard deviation (SD) and 45.3 coefficient of variation (COV), this implies that some of the sources of financing are not being utilised.
Much of the Area Councils' finances are not utilized for rural development. The respondents were asked to indicate whether much of the Area Councils' funds are utilize for rural development or not and their responses were presented in Table 5. Analysis of the responses show that, 73.1%, 40.7% and 55.9% in Abaji, Bwari and Gwagwalada respectively agreed with the statement, while 19.2%, 44.4% and 32% in Abaji, Bwari and Gwagwalada respectively disagreed. About 7.7% in Abaji, 14.8% in Bwari and 12% in Gwagwalada Area Councils are not certain. This item has a mean score of 3.25 with a SD of 1.15 and COV of 35.38%, the implication of this is that it is true that much of the Area Councils' funds are not utilized for rural development.
Rural development is not a priority in the Area Councils. Results of the findings indicated that 7.6%, 3.7% and 4% in Abaji, Bwari and Gwagwalada respectively agreed with the statement, while 88.5%, 92.5% and 96% in Abaji, Bwari and Gwagwalada respectively disagreed. About 3.8% in Abaji, 3.7% in Bwari and 0% in European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905(Paper) ISSN 2222-2839(Online) Vol.12, No.19, 2020 Gwagwalada Area Councils are not certain of it. This statement has a mean of 1.68, SD of 0.86 and COV of 51.2, this implies that the development of rural area is the major priority of the Area Councils.
Some sources of financing are not being utilized because they yield low returns. Peoples' responses show that 53.9%, 59.2% and 60% in Abaji, Bwari and Gwagwalada respectively agreed with the statement, while 38.4%, 26% and 28% in Abaji, Bwari and Gwagwalada respectively disagreed. And about 7.7% in Abaji, 14.8% in Bwari and 12% in Gwagwalada Area Councils are not certain of the statement. These responses have a mean of 3.36, SD of 1.24 and COV of 36. 90, implying that, some sources of financing are not being utilized because they yield low return.
Some sources of financing are not being utilized because they are not viable. Peoples' responses show that 50%, 59.3% and 60% in Abaji, Bwari and Gwagwalada respectively agreed with the statement, while 32.3%, 33.3% and 32% in Abaji, Bwari and Gwagwalada respectively disagreed. About 7.7% in Abaji, 7.4% in Bwari and 28% in Gwagwalada Area Councils are not certain of the statement. These responses have an overall mean score of 3.09, SD of 1.2 and COV of 38.83%, this implies that it is true that some sources of financing are not being utilized because they are not viable.
Some sources of financing are not being enforced. Responses show that 57.7%, 62.9% and 52% in Abaji, Bwari and Gwagwalada respectively agreed with the statement, while 33.8%, 14.8% and 24% in Abaji, Bwari and Gwagwalada respectively disagreed. About 7.7% in Abaji, 22.2% in Bwari and 24% in Gwagwalada Area Councils are not certain of the statement. These responses have a mean of 3.49, SD of 1.14 and COV of 32.66, this implies that some sources of financing are not being enforced.

Hypothesis Testing
The data collected was subjected to Kruskal Wallis H-test to verify whether there is significant variation in the peoples' perception on the utilization of available sources of financing across the area councils. Ho: There is no significant difference in the people perception on utilization of available sources of financing across the area councils.  6 shows that H-calculated is 0.29 and the X 2 -critical is 5.9915. This means that the critical value 5.9915 at 0.05 level of significance and 2 degree of freedom is greater than the H-calculated 0.29; we therefore accept the Null hypothesis which states that 'There is no significant difference in the people perception on utilization of available sources of financing across the area councils. This is reflected in their total mean response of 2.9 on table 5. It indicates that Area Councils do not utilize fully all the financing sources in their domains.

Fiscal Operations of the Area Councils
The time series data from the selected area councils' fiscal operations for the period of 2009-2013 are presented and analyzed as follows: European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905(Paper) ISSN 2222-2839(Online) Vol.12, No.19, 2020 50   Table 7. The increase over the two years was indicative of more statutory revenue allocation to the Area Council and the loans facility collected from the Bank, rather than increase from its internally generated sources.  Table 7 As indicated in table 8, the internally generated sources contributed only N0.7% of the council's finances during the study period. While, 3.3% and 96% respectively represents the contributions from external; borrowing and statutory revenue allocation sources. Also revealed in the tables (7&8) presented, is poor accounting records in the council as appropriate revenue details from the sub heads were not kept. This poses a negative implication for the council's development drive and its sustainability, as the area council has abandoned some crucial rural projects during the period.  The total recurrent revenue of Gwagwalada council which was over N1.3 billion in 2009 rose steadily to about N2.5 billion in 2013. As indicated in table 11, the increase was mostly as a result of increased statutory revenue allocation than any improvement in internal revenue generation to the council. Therefore, the internally generated sources contributed only N2.3% of the council's finances during the study period. While 97.7% represents the contributions from statutory revenue allocation sources as presented in Table 12. This poses a negative implication for its development sustainability as the study observed cases of abandoned projects in the area.

Discussion of Results
The overall perception of our respondents across the Area selected Councils is that, the Area Councils do not utilize all the available sources of their financing effectively with a total mean response of 2.89, 1.12 SD and COV of 38.75 as shown in table 5. Here, the respondents generally disagreed to the Area Councils utilizing all the financing sources in their domains with the mean response of 2.5. According to some of the respondents, Local Government Councils lack the capacity to explore all sources of its financing owing to lack of financial autonomy which gives room to unnecessary controls over their financing and programmes by the higher tiers, thereby denying them substantial finances to fund rural development. Corroborating this position, Kawugana (2019) asserts that, 'Mostly, all local governments in Nigeria do no longer perform their responsibilities simply because of poor finances arising from inadequate revenue generation drive'. This is a threat to the sustainable financing of the LGs projects. And, according to Nyanumba et al (2017), 'Financial sustainability measures an organization's ability to meet all its resource and financing obligations'. The respondents also agreed to the item which states that, much of Area Councils finances are not fully utilized for rural development with a mean response of 3.3. This may be due to the incidence of corruption, misappropriation and misapplication of funds that has become rampant and endemic at local level. It has been alleged that, the local government officials exploit every opportunity to embezzle government funds in the name of official functions (Abe & Omotosho, 2014). This might have contributed to their state of underdevelopment in Nigeria. As rightly noted by Adedeji (1969), the success or failure of the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of any Local Government largely depend on financial resources available and the way these resources are utilized. Yet, an economic theory, Pareto optimality, suggests that to achieve optimality in resource allocation or utilization, a resource should be used up to the point at which its Marginal Cost (MC) is equal to its Marginal Benefit (MB) (Ariyo, 1999). In this regard, the Area Councils should be accountable and advocate for the autonomy of the local governments to allow appropriate utilization of the revenue sources by the LGs with a view to fostering rapid rural development.
On rural development not a priority of the area councils, the respondents highly disagreed with the statement through their total responses of 88.5%, 92.5% and 96% for Abaji, Bwari and Gwagwalada Area Councils respectively. This implies that, rural development is indeed top priority of the local government. And, as Ganduje (2020) and Akhakpe et al (2012) opined, the basic rationale behind the creation of local government is to meet the peculiar needs of the people at the grassroots. This has been supported by Dike (2012), who asserts that, Local government areas are known as the hub of national development and the neglect of this important segment of the population hinders national development. According to Mackenzie (1954) and Ola (1988), local government exists to provide services to the teeming population under its domain, and must be judged by its success in providing the service. Therefore, the provision of the basic needs of the people at the rural areas will promote their well-being and development of the entire nation. Equally, the respondents agreed to some sources of financing not utilized because of low yield with a mean score of 3.4 for the three Area Councils. This implies that, tapping from some financing sources is more costly compare to the returns from them. Therefore, it is not economical for the area councils to utilize such sources like radio, television, bicycles' licenses charges etc, which at present cannot contribute meaningfully to their revenue base due to their low rates, for instance. This boils down to the question of non viability and enforceability of revenue sources which the respondents also agree to, with mean scores of 3.09 and 3.49 respectively, implying greater agreement to some sources not utilized because they are not viable and enforceable in the Area councils. In addition, most of the local government land (new layouts) has not been developed to enable the effective tapping of its potentials in payment of tenement, grant rate, street naming/numbering, etc. This position is supported in Maidoki & Sarka (2020), which revealed low returns from some sources due to low tariff and non development of the sources for tapping.
The low performance of revenue from the existing sources across the three area councils in Tables 8, 10 & 12 confirmed the poor utilisation of the financing sources, with the exception of only statutory allocations, outstanding. Contributions from the internally generated revenue (IGR) sources oscillate between 0.4% and 2.7% of the total recurrent revenue of the area councils, while, the statutory allocation sources oscillate between 91.9% and 99.5% during the study period.

Conclusion and Recommendations
Going by the outcome of this study, the FCT Area Councils and other local governments in Nigeria, do not utilize the available sources of their financing effectively owing to various reasons; from lack of financial autonomy and capacity to explore all sources to low yield or returns from some sources, due to the poor state of development of their vast lands, new layouts/districts, the incidence of corruption, misappropriation and misapplication of finances. The low performance of revenue from the existing sources across the three area councils confirmed the poor utilisation of the financing sources, during the study period. Therefore, Local Governments should ensure maximum exploitation of all the potentials lawful sources of their financing to engender sustainable rural development in the country as follows:  Developing their financing sources by the provision of facilities like roads, water supply and electricity in the new layout/districts;  Upward review of the old tariff rates to reflect current realities;  Election of visionary and selfless leaders;  Enforcements of all the anti-corruption laws to checkmate corruptions.