The Federal Government has disclosed that in 2023, Nigerians paid N40.14 billion in road tax to state governments.

This was contained in an analysis of data from the Internally Generated Revenue report recently published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The figure collected represented a 63.36% increase from the N24.57 billion collected in 2022, which affirmed the crucial role of road tax in state-level finances across the country.

According to the NBS report, Lagos leads other states with a record N16.74 billion in road tax revenue for 2023.

Despite having no record of road tax revenue in 2022, Lagos State accounted for 41.7% of total road tax revenue in 2023.

Ebonyi State recorded an exceptional growth of 3,804.32 percent from N72.95mn in 2022 to N2.85 billion in 2023 and Rivers State recorded a growth of 270.66 percent collecting N830.01mn N, compared to 223.93 mn N in 2022.

Sokoto State’s collections rose by 41.22% to N194.66 million, while Yobe State’s saw a 30.4% increase to N81.88 million despite its relatively modest overall figure.

However, several states recorded declines in road tax collection as Enugu State reported a 95.12% drop from N1.1 billion in 2022 to N53.47 million in 2023.

Katsina State recorded a decrease of 79.34 percent, collecting only Sh29.3 million compared to Sh141.81 million the previous year.

Niger State also experienced a significant reduction with revenue dropping by 53.41% to N190.49 million from N408.83 million in 2022.

Other notable declines include Cross River, which recorded a 62.54% drop, with revenue dropping from N3.26 billion in 2022 to N1.22 billion in 2023, while Abuja recorded no road toll revenue in 2023.

Meanwhile, the NBS highlighted an overall increase in internally generated revenue in Nigerian states, with total IGR reaching N2.43 trillion in 2023, which is up 26% from N1.93 trillion in 2022.