The Federal Government has warned Ministries, Departments and Agencies against poor performance after monitoring revealed that some government institutions became less responsive when active supervision ended.
The Director-General of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, Princess Zahrah Mustapha Audu, gave the warning during a high-level engagement with MDAs organised by the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja.
According to a statement issued on Friday, Audu presented findings from the Business Environment Enhancement Programme Accelerator, which assessed the implementation of reforms across federal institutions.
The assessment showed that 16 MDAs achieved full implementation of the reforms evaluated. However, subsequent mystery shopping exercises revealed a decline in responsiveness after active monitoring stopped, raising concerns about agencies’ commitment to sustaining improvements without direct supervision.
Audu said the findings highlighted the need for government institutions to maintain service standards and demonstrate measurable results rather than comply with reforms only when they were being monitored.
She warned that MDAs would remain under scrutiny through mystery shopping exercises, a live performance tracker and the forthcoming end-of-year Business Facilitation Act Compliance Ranking.
“The message was clear: performance monitoring is continuous, compliance is measurable, and MDAs must be prepared to account for their results,” the statement quoted her as saying.
The council added that the Federal Ministry of Finance would increasingly consider agencies’ performance, responsiveness and compliance with reforms in its engagements and dealings with them.
It said the approach aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s stated zero-tolerance policy on non-performance and the government’s commitment to improving services for citizens and businesses.
The engagement, held under the theme “MDA Data Collection & Harmonisation,” brought together government stakeholders to discuss institutional performance, data management and compliance with reforms.
The Business Facilitation Act provides a framework for improving Nigeria’s business environment by making government procedures more efficient and responsive.
PEBEC said it would continue using digital performance tracking, mystery shopping, compliance assessments and data-driven monitoring to identify implementation gaps and strengthen accountability.
The council stressed that agencies would be expected to demonstrate lasting improvements, noting that compliance on paper alone was no longer sufficient.
