” The 800-page document recommended the scrapping and merging of 220 out of the then-existing 541 government agencies.”
Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission to be merged with Nigerian Export Promotion Council…,” said Hajiya Hadiza Bala-Usman,
Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination. Bala-Usman made this known, today, after the end of the second Federal Executive Council (FEC). meeting of the year.
She said that the FEC, presided by President Bola Tinubu, approved the merging, scrapping and subsuming of some Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government .
This is in line with the Steve Oronsaye Report of 2014, to cut down the cost of running the government.
The Oronsaye report disclosed that the government would be saving over N862 billion between 2012 and 2015.
The breakdown showed that about N124.8 billion would be reduced from agencies proposed for abolition; about N100.6 billion from agencies proposed for mergers; about N6.6 billion from professional bodies; N489.9 billion from universities; N50.9 billion from polytechnics; N32.3 billion from colleges of education and N616 million from boards of federal medical centres
Recall that Former President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated the Presidential Committee on the Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies. He appointed Stephen Oronsaye to head the committee in 2012.
The 800-page document recommended the scrapping and merging of 220 out of the then-existing 541 government agencies. It recommended the reduction of statutory agencies from 263 to 161 as well as the abolition of 38 agencies, the merger of 52, and the reversion of 14 to departments in ministries.,
Bala-Usman said that the President had constituted a committee that would work within a 12-week period to ensure that the necessary restructuring and legislative amendments needed to ensure full actualization of these approvals was granted. Accordingly, she said that the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria is to be merged with the Voice of Nigeria while the National Commission for Museum and Monuments is to be merged with the National Gallery of Acts.
” The National Theatre is to be merged with the National Troupe of Nigeria while the National Meteorological Development Centre is to be merged with the National Meteorological Training Institute. ‘’National Agency for Control of HIV/AIDS (NACA) to be merged with the Centre for Disease Control in the Federal Ministry of Health while National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to be merge with the National Commission for Refugee Migration and Internally Displaced Persons.
‘’The Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa will be merged with the Directorate of Technical Aid and to function as a Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ” Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission to be merged with Bureau for public enterprises.
The National Biotechnology Development Agency will be merged with the National Centre for Genetic Resource and Biotechnology “The National Institute for Leather Science Technology will be merged with the National Institute for Chemical Technology…”