Fiscal federalism emphasizes the need to share the functions and finances of the public sector between the federal and sub-federal units of a country. This is done to enable each unit of government to provide goods and services in areas of their competence. However, fiscal federalism, as it is practised in Nigeria, has brought some challenges to the local governments in their service delivery to the people in their jurisdictions especially in the area of federal allocations to local governments which are channelled through the State Joint Local Government Account. 

The State Joint Local Government Account is a constitutional creation that pools the statutory allocations of all local governments in a State together for onward distribution by the State to its local governments. The Account has been a recurring decimal in both the 1979 and 1999 Constitutions and the problems that have been associated with the conception and management of the Account have lingered. Principal among these are State’s refusal to contribute their share into the Account, abuse and mismanagement. The idea of the Joint Account itself is an exercise in revenue sharing which is common to all federal arrangements and even unitary systems. The local government is the closest tier of government to the people in Nigeria, yet the population in it is denied the benefits of its existence. The failure of the local governments in the area of service delivery has made the citizens to lose trust in government as an institution. 

Many Nigerians crave for change in the local government system as presently constituted in order to not only bring it in conformity with present day realities but also to make it live up to the expectations of the people who have been yearning for grassroots development. This study is therefore aimed at investigating the management and challenges of State Joint Local Government Account (SJLGA) and the implications of these for effective service delivery in Kaduna and Gombe states. Three hypotheses were formulated to serve as a guide to the study. Data for the study were generated from both the primary and secondary sources and their contents were analyzed using chi square, tables, and percentages. 

Responses from interview were used for further analysis in the presentation of data. The findings of this research are that excessive control especially through the (SJLGA,) and paucity of funds occasioned by improper management of the SJLGA have combined to hamstring the efficient service delivery ability of the understudied local governments in Kaduna and Gombe States. The first factor which is excessive control through the (SJLGA) contributed the most to the dismal state of affairs in the understudied local governments. Consequently, it is recommended that the provisions of the State Joint Local Government Account be reviewed in the on-going 1999 Constitution review in order to salvage the local governments’ deplorable financial situation being brought about by the improper management of this Joint Account.