President Bola Tinubu has instructed the consolidation, merging, and integration of 104 agencies, including the EFCC, ICPC, NCC, NTA, PTAD.
This directive was issued by the president on Monday for the full implementation of the Stephen Oronsaye report on civil service reform.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan established the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalization of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions, and Agencies in 2011, with Stephen Oronsaye as chairman. The committee's 800-page report, submitted on April 16, 2012, revealed significant competition and overlap among several agencies, leading to ill feelings and unnecessary expenditure.
The Oronsaye report identified 541 Federal Government parastatals, commissions, and agencies and recommended reducing 263 statutory agencies to 161. It also proposed abolishing 38 agencies and merging 52 others, with 14 agencies reverting to departments in ministries.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari responded to the report in November 2021 by establishing two committees under former Heads of Service of the Federation. One committee was tasked with reviewing the Oronsaye Report, while the other was to examine all new establishments set up after 2014.
The report identified 929 Ministries, Developments, and Agencies (MDAs) in the current Federal Government budgeting structure, with the Oronsaye report identifying 541 Parastatals, Commissions, and FG Agencies.
The report recommends abolishing 38 Federal Agencies, including the Public Complaints Commission, National Poverty Eradication Programme, Utilities Charges Commission, National Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS, National Intelligence Committee, among others.
It also proposes merging 14 agencies into ministries where they were created, such as the Debt Management Office with the Federal Ministry of Finance, Public Health Department back to the Federal Ministry of Health, and the National Information Technology Development Agency into the Ministry of Communication Technology, among others.
Furthermore, the report suggests reducing statutory agencies from 263 to 161.
Other recommendations include merging the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC), and the regulatory functions of the Nigerian Postal Services; scrapping the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) and Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission (NCPC); subsuming the National Salaries, Income, and Wages Commission under the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commission; merging the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission with the Bureau of Public Enterprise; and merging the National Human Rights Commission with the Public Complaints Commission, among others.
The statement reads
"Thank you very much humble minister for the overview, Distinguish ladies and gentlemen I would like to go over the items that were discussed and the consequently approved at the federal executive council. One of the key areas as the honorable minister has mentioned the fact that our administration has taken a very bold step towards implementation on aspect of the Ora panel report which speaks to merge, subsuming, scrapping and relocation of parastatal agencies and commissions of federal government, this is in line with the need to reduce cost of governance and ensure that we have streamlined sufficiency across the governance value chain. we would go through quickly, the list of agencies that has been emerged, scrapped and their functions,move to ministries and agencies and those merged and used to be subsumed, for agencies that are required to the emerged,
National agency for control of HIV AIDS to be emerged with the center of disease control in the federal ministry of health, national emergency management to be merged with the national commission for refugee migration and internally displaced persons, the directorate of technical corporation in Africa to be merged with directorate of technical aid and to function as a department in the ministry of foreign affairs, infrastructure structural concession and regulatory commission to be merged with the bureau for public enterprises, Nigerian investment promotion commission to be merged with Nigerian export promotion cancel, national agency for science and technology and science of infrastructure to be emerged with national center for agricultural mechanization and the project development institute, the national biotechnology development agency to be merged with the national center for genetic resource and buy technology, the national institute for leather science and technology to be merged with the national institute for chemical technology, the nomadic education commission to be merged with the national commission for mass literacy adult education and non-formal education, the federal radio corporation to be merged with the voice of Nigeria, the national commission for museum and monument to be merged with the national gallery of arts, the national theater to be merged with national troop of Nigeria, the national metrological development center to be merged with the national metrological training institute, the Nigerian army University to be merged with the Nigerian defense academy to function as a faculty within Nigerian defense academy, Air Force institute of technology also to be merged with Nigerian defense academy to function as a faculty of Nigerian defense academy. We now move to the agencies to be subsumed, the service compact with Nigerian service come to be subsumed to function as a department under Bureau for public service reform, the border committees development to be subsumed to function as a department under the national boundary commission, the national salaries income and wages commission to be subsumed into the revenue mobilization and fiscal allocation commission, the institute for Peace and conflict revolution to be subsumed under the institute international affairs command the public complaints commission to be subsumed under the national human rights commission command Nigerian institute for trypolosomiasis to be subsumed into the institute for veterinary research, the national medicine development agency to be subsumed under the national institute for pharmaceutical research and development the national intelligence agency pension commission to be subsumed under the Nigerian pension commission,
The agencies to be relocated,
the niger Delta power holding company to be relocated to the ministry of power, the national agriculture land development agency to be relocated to the federal ministry of agriculture and food security, the national blood service commission to converted into an agency and to be relocated to the federal ministry of health the Nigerian diaspora commission to be converted into an agency and to be relocated to the federal ministry of finance in addition, Mr president constituted a committee that will work within 12 week. To ensure that the necessary restructuring and legislative amendment that are needed to ensure the full actualization of this are granted, he taxed this committee with an immediate terms of reference to proceed an ensure that all of these are done within a period of 12 weeks. The committee membership comprises of the following
the secretary to the government of federation will chair the committee, the members are
the head of civil service of the federation, the attorney general of the federation and minister of Justice, the humble minister of budget and national planning, the director general Bureau of public service reform, the special advisor to the president on policy and coordination the two senior special assistant to the president on national assembly and the Cabinet affairs office will serve as secretariat. The committee will look at the administrative restructuring and also the legislative amendment required ensure the full implementation of the recommendation, the other aspect of recommendation that been passed to the committee to look at it's important for us to appreciate the board approval granted by Mr President at the federal executive cancel this has been a recommendation that has been I think in the Nigerian discourse from 2012 and we're here in 2024 and it is still being approved and the aspect that are applicable to mergers are as I said subsuming, scrapping and relocation of agencies are those that have been so considered arising from the totality of the panel report so I thank you all for listening I look forward to any questions for clarification."