EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF THE JOINT ACCOUNT SYSTEM ON THE FUNDING OF RURAL ROAD DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Local government is the closest tier of government to the local populace among the other levels of government. Its imperativeness to service delivery at the grassroots level therefore cannot be underestimated. Nonetheless, the issue of Joint Account System and development of local government area has been the long aged issue and one of the motives behind the creation of local governments was to bring development to rural dwellers among which is the construction and maintenance of rural roads. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of Joint Account System on the funding of rural road infrastructural development project in Nigerian, using Saki West and Atisbo local government areas of Oyo state as the study area. The study adopts the mixed research method, which comprises both quantitative and qualitative data. The primary data consists of the interview and questionnaire methods while the secondary sources involve journals, articles, web, and government documents. The population size of the study was Two Hundred and Sixty-Three (263). The study discovers that state joint account system negatively affects the funding of rural road infrastructural development. The study, therefore, recommends among the followings that there is need to strengthen Local Government financial autonomy through the administrative autonomy in order to give verve to the judgment of the Supreme Court of July 11, 2024 and increase oversight function through supervision and evaluation of road project in Saki West and Atisbo local government area of Oyo state Nigeria.