Tunde Bakare
Nigeria is working towards introducing measurable performance targets for federal ministries, departments and agencies to reduce regulatory delays, overlapping fees and administrative barriers affecting businesses and investors.
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Taiwo Oyedele outlined the proposed framework during a meeting with Agency heads and senior government officials in Abuja.
A statement from the Federal Ministry of Finance explained that the initiative aims to eliminate overlapping regulatory responsibilities, multiple fees and unnecessary administrative procedures.
Under the proposed “One Government” approach, agencies with overlapping responsibilities would coordinate their activities around a lead agency, a single process and a single fee. The government also plans to review unnecessary regulatory requirements and strengthen consultations with affected stakeholders before introducing major policy changes.
The Finance Ministry will review submissions from participating agencies and provide feedback within four to six weeks. It will then circulate a draft performance framework for consultation before individual agencies agree on measurable commitments, which will be subject to periodic reviews. The announcement did not specify when implementation would begin or set numerical targets for reducing fees, processing times or compliance costs.
The initiative comes amid concerns about the consistency of existing business-environment reforms. A July 2026 assessment by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), reported by BusinessDay, found that 16 federal ministries, departments and agencies had fully implemented the reforms assessed under its Business Environment Enhancement Programme Accelerator.
The assessment covered 69 federal agencies, with PEBEC reporting that 98% were responsive to inquiries from businesses and investors.
However, PEBEC Director-General Princess Zahrah Mustapha-Audu subsequently said mystery-shopping exercises found that agency responsiveness declined after active monitoring ended.
Mystery shopping involves testing public services through interactions designed to resemble those of ordinary businesses and investors. The findings highlight the difficulty of sustaining reforms beyond formal assessments. Under the proposed framework, agency performance would be measured against service-delivery speed, compliance with published timelines and reductions in the cost of doing business.
Regulatory delays can impose costs on companies beyond official fees. Repeated submissions to different agencies, unclear requirements and missed approval deadlines can hold up investments and increase compliance costs. The proposed approach aims to reduce these burdens, although the government has not quantified the potential savings for businesses.
The initiative builds on PEBEC, established in 2016 to coordinate reforms aimed at reducing administrative and regulatory barriers to doing business. Its reform agenda covers business registration, construction permits, electricity connections, property registration, taxation and cross-border trade.
Previous reforms have included online company registration and shorter processing timelines for certain services. The Corporate Affairs Commission, for example, publishes a service timeline of 24 working hours for company registration once all required documents have been received and outstanding queries resolved.
Such standards provide a basis for assessing whether agencies meet their published deadlines. The proposed framework, however, would extend performance monitoring to a broader range of regulatory and administrative activities.
Oyedele said the Finance Ministry would also be subject to the new performance requirements.
He acknowledged shortcomings within the ministry, including slow approval processes, delayed fund releases and outdated regulations.
Agencies will also be expected to meet existing statutory obligations, including remitting legally due revenue in full and on time, transferring operating surpluses to the Consolidated Revenue Fund and submitting audited accounts as required by law.
Including the Finance Ministry in the framework would extend the performance requirements beyond business-facing regulators to other federal government operations