Analysis of Fiscal Decentralization and Public Service Delivery in Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the effects of fiscal decentralization on public service delivery in Nigeria. This was with a view to analyzing the influence of fiscal decentralization on health and educational service delivery in Nigeria between 1999 and 2012. Cross sectional (secondary) sources of data was utilized which covered the period of 1999 to 2012. Data on transfer from federal government (tr), internally generated revenue (igr), loans and grants (or), states’ GDP (Y), human development index (hdi), access to health (hel), access to education (edu), fully vaccinated children (fvc) and rate of enrolment for primary education (pne) were obtained from the annual statistical bulletin published by the Central Bank of Nigeria and Core Welfare Indicators published by the National Bureau of Statistics. Two core components of public services (Health and Education) were analyzed, and a total of thirty six states in Nigeria including Federal Capital Territory were used. Stata 10.0 Software were used for the estimation; data were analyzed using descriptive and econometric technique.  The results showed that fiscal decentralization had significant positive effects on educational service delivery (t=2.3, p<0.05); conversely, fiscal decentralization had insignificant and negative effects on health service delivery in Nigeria (t=1.18, p>0.05). Also, internally generated revenue was statistically equal to zero and contributed negatively to public service delivery in Nigeria (t=1.44, p>0.05). The study concluded that there is need to increase states government revenue autonomy in order to meet their expenditure responsibility functions of providing qualitative public services.

Keywords: Fiscal Decentralization, Public Service Delivery, Health, Education, States Government and Nigeria.