ABSTRACT

 Finance is an essential feature of every organization necessary for its growth and survival. Hence, people refer to it as "the lifeblood of every business". However, the effective management of finance of an organization by the financial manger utmost importance. In this way, there is a close relationship between finance and financial management. Financial management involves the capital sourcing (financing) and the capital uses (investing) of a farm. Financing describes the management of capital sources, while investing describes the management of capital uses. Thus, financial management is the business function that deal with the management of capital sources and uses so as to attain desired goals. Be that as it may financial management will in a very long way influence the performance of my organization. The topic of this research work is: the influence of financial management on local government performance, a survey of some selected local government areas of Abia State to address this topic, four research questions were constructed and sample population of 240 was considered. From the response collected through the questionnaire, it was discovered that financial management influence performance of the local government. That poor administration influence financial management, that corruption affects financial management of the local government and that state local government joint account affects the financial management of Abia State Local Government Areas. The researcher therefore recommended that the local government should employ professional's qualified treasurers and accountants. That they should give strong attention to budgetary policy. That the joint account allocation committee be abolished, so that the statutory allocation from federal government will come directly to the local government account. Owing to the fact that financial management in Nigeria local government is at present far from satisfactory, a change need to be made to improve the public image of local government and enable it perform its statutory function of providing essential services to the people at the grassroot.