FG moves to cut cost of government, targets MDA delays, duplicate fees

By Onu Okorie

Federal Government is moving to make Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) accountable for the time and cost businesses incur in accessing government services, with a new performance framework targeting bureaucratic delays, duplicate regulations and multiple fees.
Under the proposed framework, government agencies will no longer be assessed primarily by the volume of regulations and procedures they administer, but increasingly by measurable outcomes, including the speed of service delivery, compliance with published timelines and the cost imposed on businesses.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed this on Thursday at a strategic engagement with heads of agencies and senior government officials at the Federal Ministry of Finance headquarters in Abuja.
Oyedele said the next phase of Nigeria’s economic reforms must address what businesses encounter daily when dealing with government, arguing that macroeconomic stability would have limited impact if companies continued to lose time and money navigating multiple government processes.
He challenged government agencies to become facilitators of investment rather than sources of additional costs and delays.
According to him, agencies must operate within their statutory mandates and eliminate duplicate requirements, multiple charges and unnecessary procedures that raise the cost of doing business.
The proposed approach is anchored on what the minister described as a “One Government” model, under which government institutions would coordinate their responsibilities instead of forcing businesses and other applicants to deal separately with conflicting demands from different agencies.
Where mandates overlap, the objective, he said, should be one lead agency, one process and one fee.
The proposed reforms could have significant implications for businesses that routinely interact with several government regulators and agencies to secure licences, approvals, permits and other statutory requirements.
Rather than treating regulatory compliance as an issue for individual agencies, the framework seeks to make government collectively responsible for the experience of businesses and investors.
Oyedele also directed agencies to consult stakeholders before introducing new regulations and to assess the likely economic consequences of proposed policies.
He called for greater coordination among institutions with related responsibilities and reasonable notice before major regulatory or policy changes are implemented.
The initiative also targets the financial relationship between government agencies and the federation.
Oyedele directed agencies to remit revenues due to government promptly and in full, transfer operating surpluses to the Consolidated Revenue Fund and submit audited financial statements in accordance with the law.
The minister’s position effectively links administrative efficiency with fiscal accountability, suggesting that agencies will be expected not only to generate revenue but also to demonstrate that their operations provide value without imposing unnecessary costs on the private sector.
Under the proposed performance framework, agency heads would be required to commit to measurable targets whose implementation would be periodically reviewed.
These targets are expected to include the time required to deliver services, adherence to published service timelines and reductions in the cost and complexity of regulatory processes.
Significantly, Oyedele said the Ministry of Finance itself would be subject to the same standards.
He acknowledged that government must address its own internal bottlenecks, including slow approvals, delayed releases and outdated administrative rules, rather than demanding efficiency from other agencies without reforming its own processes.
The Ministry will now review submissions from participating agencies and provide specific feedback within four to six weeks.
The draft framework will subsequently be circulated for further consultation, after which individual agencies are expected to agree to measurable commitments.
The commitments will then form the basis for periodic performance reviews.
The move comes as the Federal Government seeks to convert its broader economic reforms into stronger private-sector activity, investment and job creation.
While reforms such as exchange-rate changes, fiscal restructuring and tax reforms are designed to improve the macroeconomic environment, the government is increasingly turning attention to the administrative barriers that can undermine those gains at the level of individual businesses.
For investors, the significance of the proposed framework could therefore lie less in another new policy document and more in whether government institutions begin to measure themselves by the time, money and uncertainty they impose on the economy.
If implemented effectively, the One Government approach could reduce regulatory duplication, shorten approval processes and make government services more predictable.
But its success will ultimately depend on whether agency heads are willing to surrender overlapping functions, coordinate with other institutions and accept performance assessments based on outcomes rather than compliance with internal procedures.
The Federal Government’s emerging message is that economic reform cannot end with changing policies at the macroeconomic level; it must also change the way citizens, businesses and investors experience government at the point of service.