17 Federal Agencies Scored Zero In Efficiency Rating — PEBEC Report

No fewer than 17 federal government agencies have been ranked completely inefficient by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) in its latest Business Facilitation Act (BFA) Performance Report.

The report assessed how ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) were enabling the ease of doing business in Nigeria through reforms, policies and public service delivery.

The agencies that scored zero in the efficiency metric included the Bank of Industry, Trademarks Registry, Environmental Health Council of Nigeria, Federal Produce Inspection Service, Galaxy Backbone Limited, Industrial Training Fund, Joint Tax Board, National Identity Management Commission, National Insurance Commission and National Bureau of Statistics.

Others are the Nigerian Postal Service, Patent and Design Registry, Service Compact, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Nigerian Copyright Commission, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority and the Financial Reporting Council.

The report, released over the weekend, assessed 69 MDAs between January and October 2025 on efficiency, transparency, responsiveness and “mystery shopping” — a metric that uses real-life scenarios to test compliance with published Service Level Agreements (SLAs) as mandated by the BFA 2022.

It evaluated how effectively MDAs implemented the statutory transparency and efficiency requirements established under the Act.

The Business Facilitation Act (BFA) 2022 was signed into law in February 2023 as part of the Federal Government’s strategy to consolidate and expand ease of doing business reforms. PEBEC, established in 2016, is responsible for driving implementation to remove bureaucratic bottlenecks.

Aside from the 17 agencies that scored zero, 10 others ranked very low, including the National Inland Waterways Authority (30%), National Pension Commission (30%), Special Control Unit for Money Laundering (30%), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (29%), NAFDAC (29%), Ministry of Interior (20%), Nigeria Investment Promotion Council (20%), Securities and Exchange Commission (19%), CBN–National Collateral Registry (13%) and NESREA (6%).

Of the 54 MDAs whose overall performance was documented, almost half performed poorly.

20 MDAs scored between 52.9% and 90.6%, eight between 42.4% and 48.8%, while 21 scored between 3% and 38.9%.

The top-performing agencies were the Nigerian Content Development Management Board (90.6%), National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (89.3%), Nigeria Customs Service (86.6%), Nigerian Communications Commission (85.3%) and Nigerian Ports Authority (84.2%).

The report also found widespread deficiencies in customer experience, transparency and digital service delivery.

It noted that while MDAs are increasingly adhering to SLAs and improving complaint resolution, critical gaps in automation, customer service and inter-agency coordination remain.

According to the report, closing these gaps is essential to building a digitally enabled, reliable and efficient public service that supports Nigeria’s economic ambitions.