The use of thugs (popularly called agberos) and third-party agents for revenue collection by state and local governments in Nigeria should be criminalised to curb rising incidents of violence and extortion, according to policy experts at Nextier.
This recommendation was made by Chukwuma Okoli and Ndu Nwokolo of Nextier in a newly released Policy Brief titled “Violent Revenue Collection by Subnational Governments in Nigeria” (May 2025 edition).
The report highlights how the growing push by subnational governments to boost Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) has led to the engagement of unofficial agents—many of whom resort to violence in enforcing collections.
“Some of the third-party revenue collection agents are usually highly placed politicians who receive the contract for revenue collection as part of the settlement for their political support to the government,” the report noted.
In response to this trend, the experts urged state governments to enact laws criminalising the use of thugs and violent means in revenue collection.
According to the report, the states “should also extend to the sale of revenue items to third parties who pay money upfront to buy some revenue items, which they now collect to recoup their money and make profits.
“Measures should also be put in place to apprehend and prosecute such offenders,” the report stated.
Digitize revenue collection to prevent leakages
Nextier’s report emphasised the need to digitise revenue collection systems to reduce reliance on cash transactions often exploited by thugs and third-party agents.
“This makes it difficult to determine the actual amount of revenue collected,” the report said. It added that the use of such agents has led to increased criminality, multiple taxation, and extortion, as these actors often use intimidation and violence to extract illegal or inflated payments from the public.
The report also noted that such practices deepen the trust deficit between citizens and the government, discouraging voluntary compliance with tax obligations.
“This is because persons who have suffered violence and extortion and also see how government revenue is diverted by third-party revenue collection agents, and thugs would usually not want to pay taxes because they believe such taxes are not used efficiently for governance and development,” the authors observed.
Rising IGR despite leakages
Despite these challenges, the report acknowledged that subnational governments, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), have recorded a significant 84.29 percent growth in IGR over the past five years.
However, this growth has been undermined by substantial leakages due to revenue collected through unauthorised and unregulated channels.
