Local Government Performance Contracting and Service Delivery in Nigeria: Lessons from Osun State

This study examines the concept and application of performance contracting as a tool for improving service delivery accountability in local government administration in Osun State, South West Nigeria. Performance contracting involves formal agreements between government principals and local government executives that specify service delivery targets, performance indicators, and accountability consequences for non-performance. While the approach has been adopted in various forms in several African countries, its systematic application in Nigerian local governance remains limited and largely experimental. Using a professional applied research design, data is gathered from 100 respondents including Osun State Ministry of Local Government officials, local government chairmen, department heads, civil society service monitors, and academic governance experts through structured questionnaires and interviews. The New Public Management Theory and the Principal-Agent Framework provide the conceptual basis. Secondary data includes African Development Bank governance reports, comparative case studies from Kenya and Ghana on performance contracting in local government, and recent Nigerian academic literature on local government performance management. Descriptive statistics and comparative analysis are applied. Findings are expected to identify conditions under which performance contracts can be effectively applied in Nigerian local government, including political will, independent monitoring, and consequence enforcement mechanisms. Practical recommendations include a pilot performance contracting scheme for Osun State local government councils, including a governance performance index and citizen satisfaction scoring system. Keywords: Performance contracting, service delivery, local government, Osun State, accountability.