The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has retained its position as the best performing Federal Government agency in the transparency and efficiency ranking for the year 2023.

Dr Jumoke Oduwole, Special Adviser to the President on Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) and Investment, stated this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

Oduwole stated that ranking was published in the overall Business Facilitation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Acts (BFA) performance results for the year 2023, which was released in Abuja.

According to her, NCDMB topped other Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) in the Federal Government’s compliance ranking scale with 70.07 per cent score.

She quoted the BFA Compliance Report for January to December, 2023 as showing the top five MDAs with commendable performance to include NCDMB 70.07 per cent and Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) 66.9per cent.

Oduwole said the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) had 65.12per cent to place third, while Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) had 65.04 per cent to occupy the fourth position.

“The Nigerian Export- Import (NEXIM) Bank finished the year on 63.51per cent to place fifth,” she added.

The PEBEC boss urged MDAs to take concrete steps to improve efficiency and transparency ratings before the end of the 2024 reporting period, as only 10 MDAs out 39 scored above 50 per cent.

“With only 10 MDAs scoring above 55 per cent and a weighted average score of 334.8 per cent across the 39 MDAs, strategic measures to enhance sector-specific metrics will need to be prioritised.

“MDAs must take concrete steps to improve efficiency and transparency ratings before the end of the 2024 reporting period.

“Most importantly, MDAs should as a matter of urgency set-up BFA Implementation Reform Committees.

“These committees will be responsible for steering BFA implementation initiatives in the MDAs, accelerating the strides taken in promoting a culture of transparency and accountability,” she said.

Oduwole urged the MDAs to draw insights from empirical data and past BFA reports (since 2018) to drive essential improvements in efficiency and transparency.

“The high-performing MDAs demonstrated commendable performance in both efficiency and transparency through diligent adherence to their Service Level Agreements (SLAs) during the 2023 reporting year.

“The overall performance of MDAs highlights the need for massive improvement in key BFA compliance metrics.

“Over the past seven years, PEBEC has consistently published Compliance Reports, providing an empirical analysis of the monthly reports from MDAs,” She said.

According to Oduwole, MDA’s EO1 performance score is based on efficiency and transparency measures, with a 70 per cent to 30 per cent ratio, respectively.

She said transparency, on the other hand, was assessed based on website updates, online service portals, detailed service information, timelines, costs, statutory requirements, and customer service contact details.

The PEBEC was established in July 2016 by the Federal Government to oversee Nigeria’s business environment intervention.

It had the dual mandate of removing bureaucratic and legislative constraints to doing business and improving perception of the ease of doing business in Nigeria.
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