With about 26 days left to constitutionally nominate cabinet ministers, and as his government continues to take shape, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for the umpteenth time, has been reminded of the need to cut the cost of governance in line with economic current realities.
Dwindling revenue on various fronts, fiscal measures being introduced in the economy, mounting debts, and debt-servicing obligations are already putting strains on the nation’s finances, while government hopes to run the country on shoestring budgets that cannot engender true development.
Indeed, it is estimated that Nigeria can save as much as N12 trillion annually from the merger of government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies that have overlapping functions. This is if it implements the recommendations of the Stephen Oronsaye report on the reduction of the cost of governance. Nigeria is currently neck deep in debt with the nation’s total debt stock now estimated at N49.85 trillion, according to the Debt Management Office .
A detailed analysis of Nigeria’s 2023 budget shows that a total of N18.04 trillion is allocated to all government MDAs. With a total of 541 MDAs, each MDA is estimated to receive about N33.27 billion. The humongous figures include N62.47 billion for the operation and maintenance of PAF, N17.29 billion for foreign and local trips, and N2.04 billion earmarked for related expenses. The Presidency has maintained 10 aircraft since the inception of the Buhari regime in May 2015.
This recommendation has been seen by stakeholders as a sign of hope that the Oronsaye report might be implemented by the current administration, even though they also called for caution as the objective appears to be mainly to increase revenue with little emphasis on cost reduction. “Its areas of focus include effective maritime safety administration, maritime labour regulation, marine pollution prevention and control, search and rescue, cabotage enforcement, shipping development and ship registration, training and certification of seafarers, and maritime capacity development. Most parts of NIMASA’s mandate are beyond revenue assessment and collection,” Onyekpere said.
“The core function of NIMASA is not revenue collection. The core function is maritime security. Now, if you merge it and make an accountant the head of the agency, how will the person supervise security? “When you merge revenue collection agencies, it tends to bring about what we call the economy of scale; it reduces the cost of collection of revenue and also encourages standardisation of revenue collection methods. It helps the government to see the whole picture of the revenue.
In his reaction, the Executive Director, of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre and Head, of Transparency International, Nigeria, Auwal Ibrahim Musa said that he was in support of any policy that will bring about transparency, efficiency, and block revenue leakages. According to him: “Nigeria is losing a lot of revenue because of the multifarious revenue collecting agencies. We need to have a unified revenue collection agency as it is done in other countries. Apart from blocking leakages, the cost of the collection will also come down.
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