Increased fiinancial autonomy for Nigeria's local governments 

In a landmark decision July 2024, Nigeria’s Supreme Court ruled that Local Governments must receive their financial allocations directly from the national federation account, bypassing state governments, which up until this ruling controlled local government allocations. This ruling firmly recognized Local Government’s financial autonomy, and was a major step forward for decentralization in the country. However this change has also made necessary, significant capacity building for local leaders and technical staff to ensure effective management of these new responsibilities.

CLGF and ILGS partner to deliver training 

Within this context, the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) in collaboration with the Institute of Local Governance (ILGS) of Ghana, developed a targeted training programme drawing on existing good practice in financial management and local accountability. CLGF worked with its member, the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), to identify a mixed cohort of local government representatives drawn from across different states. The objectives of the training were to: 

• deepen knowledge in leadership and management roles in the context of sub-national governance and development;
• enable the application of transformational leadership and management skills towards the promotion of good local governance practices;
• strengthen the capacity to examine budget and public finances and critically relate local government performance to the management of budget;
• build partnerships and peaceful coexistence among ethnic groups, political parties and different sections of the people in the local government areas;
• and promote innovative approaches for effective local public services delivery.

The training took place from 25 to 27^th November 2025, at the ILGS, Accra, Ghana, and was made up of 19 Chairpersons, Deputy Chairpersons and Directors of Finance. The Training included classroom and active leadership sessions, as well as a study visit to the Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly (KoKMA), one of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.

Next steps and further exchange 

Participants concluded that the training had been very useful and that it should be followed up with similar programmes available to a wider cohort of leaders and senior staff. CLGF will be following up with ALGON on possible modalities for replications and further methods to support Nigeria’s local governments in this important transition towards greater local autonomy.