Internal Revenue Generation and Local Government Autonomy in Gombe State: A Study of Gombe Local Government Area

This study examines the relationship between internal revenue generation capacity and the operational autonomy of local government in Gombe Local Government Area of Gombe State, North East Nigeria. Local government autonomy in Nigeria is significantly constrained by overdependence on federal statutory allocations and state government-controlled joint accounts, limiting council discretion in development planning and expenditure management. Improving internally generated revenue is widely seen as a pathway to greater financial autonomy and development effectiveness at the grassroots level. The study employs a survey research design, collecting primary data from 150 respondents including local government revenue collectors, business owners, market associations, and finance department officials. The Fiscal Autonomy Framework and the Revenue Mobilization Theory guide the conceptual analysis. Secondary data includes Gombe State Ministry of Finance reports, Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission publications, and recent academic literature on local government finance in Nigeria. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis are applied. Expected findings indicate that business formalization, improved revenue administration systems, and community levy awareness campaigns significantly increase internally generated revenue and, correspondingly, local government development capacity. Recommendations include introduction of a comprehensive revenue code, deployment of point-of-sale devices for levy collection, and strengthening of local government revenue monitoring mechanisms. Keywords: Internal revenue, local government autonomy, Gombe State, fiscal capacity, grassroots governance.