The Federal Government, through the National Bureau of Statistics, has revealed that Nigerians paid a total of N40.14 billion in road taxes to state governments in 2023, marking a significant rise in state-level revenue.
According to the report, this amount represents a 63.36% increase from the N24.57 billion collected in 2022.
Lagos State led the country with a record N16.74 billion in road tax collections, accounting for 41.7% of the total. Despite having no recorded road tax revenue in 2022, Lagos emerged as a top contributor in 2023.
Ebonyi State also made headlines with a sharp increase of 3,804.32%, collecting N2.85 billion compared to N72.95 million in 2022.
Other states also saw substantial rises in road tax revenue. Rivers State collected N830.01 million, a 270.66% jump from N223.93 million in 2022, while Sokoto and Yobe States reported increases of 41.22% and 30.4%, respectively. Sokoto collected N194.66 million, and Yobe gathered N81.88 million in 2023.
However, some states recorded sharp declines. Enugu State saw a drastic 95.12% drop, collecting only N53.47 million, down from N1.1 billion in 2022. Katsina and Niger States also faced significant reductions, with Katsina’s revenue falling by 79.34% and Niger’s by 53.41%.
The NBS report also noted a 26% overall increase in internally generated revenue (IGR) across all Nigerian states, totaling N2.43 trillion in 2023, up from N1.93 trillion in 2022.
Meanwhile, Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the presidential committee on fiscal policy, recently shared the committee’s plan to remove taxes on essential items like food, public transportation, and housing to help ease living costs.
“We’ve removed almost all taxes on basic necessities like food, accommodations, transportation, education, and health,” Oyedele stated, adding, “For shared passenger transportation, there’s no tax. But if you hire a taxi, you pay the tax as it’s assumed you’re not the poorest Nigerian.”
