The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported a substantial 63% increase in road tax contributions from Nigerians to state governments in 2023, underscoring the growing significance of road taxes in state revenue streams.
The report, however, noted that the Federal Capital Territory did not collect any road tax revenue in 2023.
According to the latest Internally Generated Revenue data from NBS, Nigerians paid a total of ₦40.14 billion in road taxes in 2023.
This figure marks a significant rise from the ₦24.57 billion collected in 2022.
Breaking down the collection figures, Lagos State emerged as the highest contributor, collecting ₦16.74 billion in road tax revenue for 2023.
Despite recording no road tax revenue in the previous year, Lagos accounted for a substantial 41.7% of total road tax revenue nationwide in 2023.
Ebonyi State saw an extraordinary 3,804.32% increase, with road tax collections soaring from ₦72.95 million in 2022 to ₦2.85 billion in 2023.
Several other states recorded notable increases. Rivers State’s collections jumped by 270.66%, reaching ₦830.01 million compared to ₦223.93 million in 2022. Sokoto State saw a 41.22% rise to ₦194.66 million, while Yobe State’s revenue increased by 30.4% to ₦81.88 million.
Conversely, some states experienced significant drops in road tax revenue. Enugu State reported a steep 95.12% decrease, from ₦1.1 billion to ₦53.47 million, while Katsina State saw a 79.34% decline to ₦29.3 million from ₦141.81 million.
Niger State also faced a notable reduction, with collections down 53.41% to ₦190.49 million from ₦408.83 million, while Cross River recorded a 62.54% drop, falling from ₦3.26 billion to ₦1.22 billion.
