Nigeria ‘s President, Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has approved the implementation of the Steve Oransaye Committee report on the rationalization of government agencies.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this while appearing on a Channels TV programme, Politics Today.
The Presidential Committee on the Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies, now commonly referred to as the Oronsaye Committee, was set up by the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
The committee, inaugurated in August 2011, submitted its report the following year, recommending the merger, conversion and scrapping of many agencies.
While describing the cost of governance in Nigeria as one of the highest in the world, the committee had recommended a reduction in the number of statutory agencies from 263 to 161.
Ahmed said the Federal Government had started to address the issue of high costs of governance by implementing the report.
She said, “We are looking at doing that (reducing cost of governance). The President has approved that this administration should implement the recommendations of the Oransaye report.
“So, the Oransaye report is a report that has reviewed the whole of the size of government. It has made very significant recommendation in reducing the number of agencies, merging some agencies together.”