Abstract
Rural development is imperative and a sin-qua-non for the overall development of a Nation. On this premise, this paper assesses the extent of the utilization of the available sources of financing in three Area Councils (ACs) (Abaji, Bwari and Gwagwalada) of the FCT, Abuja in relation to their performance. The level of utilization of the financing sources by the Area Councils was particularly examined based on the perception of the respondents on the following statements: ACs utilize all the financing sources in their domains; Much of ACs finances are not utilized for rural development; Rural development is not a priority of the ACs; Some sources are not utilized because they yield low returns; Some are not utilized because they are not viable; and, Some are not enforceable. The study is anchored on mobilization and integrated rural development theories. It adopted survey research design, and employed both primary and secondary sources of data. The primary sources include the administration of questionnaire to 274 respondents and field observation, while, the secondary data was sourced from the records of the selected Area councils (2009-2013), books and periodicals among others. The primary data was analyzed with the help of Ms Excel and SPSS software; Kruskal- Wallis H-test statistics was used to test the hypothesis. Findings of the study reveals that, the Area Councils do not utilize the available sources of their financing effectively owing to lack of financial autonomy and capacity to explore, low yield from some sources, poor state of development of their vast lands/districts, corruption, misappropriation and misapplication of finances. The study recommends for the provision of basic infrastructures in the new districts; review of revenue tariff to reflect current realities; and the amendment of the 1999 constitution for direct allocation to LGs among others.
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