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By John Azu
For Ogonna Ikem (not real name), a manager with a large pharmaceutical company along the Karu-Jikwoyi axis of Abuja, the sight of his business invoices and payment records is enough to cause anxiety.
On a fateful Monday, business was good, but the 45-year-old was already expecting another visit from officials of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) over alleged delays in settling some of the numerous levies imposed on his business.
He has lost count of the demands for renewals, ranging from environmental fees, tenement rates and occupational safety and health audit permits to radio and television licences, trade licences, sanitation permits, water board charges, generator-use emission permits, ground rent, fumigation permits, advertisement and signage levies, and Gbagyi indigenes permits, among others.
He also pays rent for his business premises, as well as annual licences to the Pharmacy Council and Medical and Dental Council, reflecting his professional obligations as a trained pharmacist.
According to Ikem, the combined charges consume almost two-fifths of his quarterly profit before staff salaries are paid and medicine stocks are replenished.
“As a responsible citizen running a business, I know that I have to pay for the annual renewals and levies that are legitimate, but it seems that all the time a new paper, a new person in a new uniform arrives,” he said, pulling out drawers of files containing receipts.
Ikem’s experience is not isolated. His frustration captures a growing concern among businesses and residents in Abuja over multiple taxes and levies imposed by different tiers of government and agencies.
Business owners complain that some of the charges overlap, while others are difficult to identify or justify. At the same time, residents say the quality of public services remains inadequate despite the revenue generated from the territory.
“There is no single window for all these levies. Please help us tell them (the government) to regulate their tax regimes. They are asking for television and radio licences when we don’t have any of these in the shop,” Ikem said.
“This is a menace to us and I am ready to go to court with them,” he added.
Similarly, the managing director of Chikamson Pharmacy, Pharmacist Steve Ugwu, who operates near Karu Market, said he had faced similar demands but was now more concerned about the rising cost of rent.
Ugwu said he built his shop on land provided by a local church under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) arrangement in 2011. After the agreed period elapsed, ownership reverted to the church, and he was confronted with a rent increase he described as astronomical.
According to him, the new rent represented about a 233.3 per cent increase over the previous year.
“The government should look into the cost of running small businesses in Abuja,” he pleaded.
Some business owners, however, distinguish between legitimate charges and what they consider questionable additions.
The payment of AMAC operational permits for shops and kiosks, sanitary inspection certificates and Certificates of Fitness for Continued Habitation (CFCH) is generally accepted by many operators.
For bookshop operator David Uche in Jikwoyi, the AMAC operational levy of about N5,000, usually paid in the first quarter of the year, is manageable.
But he said he still had to contend with rising electricity costs, sanitation charges and shop rent.
A roadside kiosk operator in Maitama, Ubi Ofem, said he pays N10,000 annually in levies and receives an official receipt.
For Mohammed Garba, a commercial tricycle operator plying the Nyanya-Kurudu route, the charges come more frequently.
He said he pays N300 daily to AMAC, in addition to other union levies.
A resident of one of Abuja’s highbrow neighbourhoods and a public servant, Mercy Ubi, said she had also noticed increasing deductions from her salary through the Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) system.
She said this came on top of electricity bills and what she described as excessive charges by mobile network operators.
“I learnt that in countries like South Africa, nursing mothers, the elderly and unemployed are paid, but in Nigeria, you cannot expect such as a taxpayer. Even when people work so hard to support themselves, they are constantly failed by the government,” she said.
Revenue Versus Service Delivery
Abuja and the wider Federal Capital Territory remain major revenue-generating centres, yet residents continue to complain about gaps in basic public services.
Security, street lighting, waste management, internal roads, affordable housing and water supply are among the areas frequently cited.
The FCT is one of Nigeria’s top revenue-generating centres, alongside Lagos and Rivers states. The FCT Internal Revenue Service reportedly collects more than N40 billion monthly, while the municipal council received N188.4 million from the joint account allocation of the FCT. The Federal Capital Territory Administration also operated a budget of more than N1.7 trillion in 2025, according to media reports.
Yet, Abuja, Nigeria’s political, administrative and diplomatic centre, still struggles to provide many of the basic features expected of a functional capital city, particularly in the suburbs.
Even in highbrow districts such as Wuse, Maitama, Asokoro, Guzape, Garki, Jabi and Life Camp, residents contend with poor drainage, waste disposal problems, inadequate street lighting and other infrastructure challenges.
The disparity between revenue generation and service delivery is particularly evident in communities where residents provide essential services themselves.
Those who can afford it contribute to neighbourhood security, sink boreholes, repair roads, install solar-powered electricity systems or transformers, and arrange private waste disposal.
When flooding occurs during the rainy season, residents say government intervention is often reactive rather than preventive.
Uche, the Jikwoyi book dealer, acknowledged that FCT Minister Nyesom Wike had performed better than some of his predecessors, particularly in road rehabilitation.
However, he said the improvements were still inadequate when measured against the taxes and other charges paid by residents.
“You are asking for public services when you are in Nigeria? You should know that you provide those things for yourself. We provide our security and dispose waste by ourselves because this is Nigeria,” he said.
Citizens Can Demand Accountability
Lawyers and civil society advocates say residents have a right to question how public revenue is generated and spent, while calling for greater transparency and accountability.
Lawyer and rights activist Hamza Dantani said the issue goes beyond taxation and touches on constitutional accountability, transparency, public finance and the social contract between government and citizens.
He also cited the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025, which regulates the administration, assessment, collection and enforcement of taxes.
According to him, Sections 162 and 16 of the Constitution provide, respectively, for the revenue account and distribution framework, as well as the economic objectives of government, including promoting a planned and balanced economic system and providing suitable and adequate public welfare.
“Where citizens and businesses are compelled to pay taxes, levies and other charges, whether directly or indirectly, but continue to experience poor roads, inadequate public transportation, inadequate healthcare, poor waste management, insufficient street lighting, insecurity and lack of potable water, government must be prepared to explain clearly how the revenue is being utilised,” he said.
Dantani, however, cautioned against assuming that revenue had been diverted without evidence.
“There is a legitimate concern that revenue collected by government agencies may be absorbed into general government expenditure or, where there is actual evidence of misconduct, unlawfully diverted or misapplied to projects that have little connection with the needs of the taxpayers and communities from which the revenue was generated,” he said.
He called for independent investigation of such allegations and recommended an independent tax revenue oversight, monitoring and evaluation mechanism backed by legislation.
Such a mechanism, he said, should ensure that taxpayers are not subjected to unlawful, duplicated or arbitrary charges, track public revenue, independently assess whether public expenditure delivers the intended results and provide taxpayers with channels to report unlawful collection, extortion and suspected diversion of public funds.
The Executive Director of Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE), Sylvester Uhaa, also called for a single tax collection window to eliminate duplication among federal agencies, the FCT Administration and the six area councils.
He said taxpayers should be able to see what their money is being used for.
“If a sanitation fee is charged in a market, traders should see refuse trucks and bins provided with the funds,” he said.
Uhaa also called for proper identification of tax collectors and the engagement of external auditors to examine revenue collection and expenditure by the area councils.
“In conclusion, taxation without visible or commensurate services breaks the contract between government and citizens. In other words, citizens pay taxes for services such as roads, lights and safety as rewards. Fixing that trust gap matters and encourages citizens to pay taxes because they know that their taxes are deployed for the common good,” he said.
An Abuja-based lawyer, Hameed Ajibola Jimoh, said taxpayers have the legal right to challenge government where there is a failure to fulfil corresponding obligations, particularly those intended for the public good.
“Taxpayers may either individually, by representative action or by class action, or form an association of concerned taxpayers to channel their grievances rather than taking laws into their hands or evading or refusing to fulfil their civic responsibility of tax payment,” he said.
Government Faces Own Challenges
An AMAC official confirmed to Pointblanknews, on condition of anonymity, that the council had previously suspended the radio and television licence levy following public complaints.
However, the official said he could not confirm the authenticity of the current allegations by business owners.
A senior official of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), who also spoke anonymously because she was not authorised to comment publicly, said some service-delivery gaps in Abuja were the result of overlapping responsibilities among the federal, territory and area council authorities.
She also blamed some residents for undermining government efforts through activities such as unauthorised construction, indiscriminate dumping of refuse in drainage channels, littering and vandalism of water pipes, manholes and solar isolator switches used for street lighting.
“More sensitisation and orientation are required. Also, we need enforcement,” she said.
“If people are arrested or fined, they will sit up. For instance, if traffic offenders are punished, it will reduce reckless driving. Also, we need a maintenance culture.”
The official, however, acknowledged that government must do more, particularly in transportation.
She said the FCDA needed to improve public transportation through buses and rail services to ease movement and reduce residents’ dependence on private vehicles.
For Abuja residents and businesses, however, the central question remains unresolved: as the cost of living and doing business in the nation’s capital continues to rise, when will the quality of public services catch up with the revenue being collected?