PEBEC Tightens Oversight of Federal Agencies After Responsiveness Slips
PEBEC says federal agencies will remain under continuous monitoring after responsiveness slipped when active checks ended.
Federal ministries, departments and agencies are set to face continued performance checks after a government assessment found that responsiveness weakened once active monitoring was withdrawn from some institutions.
Princess Zahrah Mustapha Audu, Director-General of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, outlined the government's position during a strategic engagement involving federal agencies in Abuja. The meeting was hosted by the Federal Ministry of Finance and focused on the collection and harmonisation of institutional data, alongside compliance with ongoing reforms.
Results presented from the Business Environment Enhancement Programme Accelerator showed that 16 federal agencies completed all the reforms assessed under the programme. PEBEC's subsequent mystery-shopping exercise, however, detected reduced responsiveness after direct monitoring stopped, raising concerns about whether improved service standards would continue without regular scrutiny.
Audu said agency performance would remain visible through several monitoring tools. These include mystery-shopping exercises, a live performance tracker and an end-of-year ranking based on compliance with the Business Facilitation Act. The mechanisms are intended to expose weaknesses in service delivery and show whether agencies are fulfilling reform commitments.
The Federal Ministry of Finance is also expected to take the performance, responsiveness and reform compliance of government bodies into account in its dealings with them. PEBEC linked that approach to President Bola Tinubu's position that poor institutional performance should not be tolerated and that public bodies should be able to demonstrate measurable results.
The Business Facilitation Act provides the legal framework for measures intended to make government processes more efficient and improve the environment for conducting business in Nigeria. Under the monitoring approach described by PEBEC, formal compliance alone will not be treated as sufficient evidence that reforms are working in practice.
PEBEC said it intends to continue using digital tracking, compliance reviews, mystery-shopping checks and data-based assessments to identify where implementation is falling short. The emphasis is on determining whether reforms produce sustained improvements for citizens and businesses rather than simply recording that an agency has completed required paperwork.
The latest warning therefore places federal agencies under continuing scrutiny after the government recorded both successful implementation by some institutions and weaker responsiveness once close supervision eased. PEBEC's position is that agencies will be expected to account for their performance through measurable outcomes as monitoring continues.