Audit Exposes Massive Collapse In Nigeria’s Public Service, 30 MDAs Tagged ‘Structurally Failing’

The report confirms what Nigerians endure daily; that is, endless queues, opaque procedures, zero accountability, and institutional arrogance.

A new federal compliance audit has named and shamed some of Nigeria’s biggest service institutions, exposing a sweeping collapse in public sector delivery and near-total disregard for the Business Facilitation Act (BFA) 2022.

According to the January–October 2025 BFA Compliance Ranking compiled by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) and obtained by SaharaReporters on Sunday, more than half of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) assessed failed to meet the minimum 50% benchmark, with 30 government institutions classified as “structurally non-compliant and operationally failing.”

The report confirms what Nigerians endure daily; that is, endless queues, opaque procedures, zero accountability, and institutional arrogance.

Only five MDAs managed to stay afloat, namely the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, 90.6%; NDLEA, 89.3%; Nigeria Customs Service, 86.6%; NCC, 85.3%; and NPA, 84.2%.

The data shows a sharp collapse in performance across most federal institutions, with governance quality plummeting dramatically once past the few agencies at the top of the rankings.

What emerges is a sweeping portrait of institutional decay, a governance graveyard where some of the country’s most critical agencies are barely functioning.

At the very bottom of the table sits the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), scoring just 12.7%, followed by the Joint Tax Board at 14.8% and the National Bureau of Statistics at 14.9%. The Federal Produce Inspection Service recorded 16.0%, while NIPOST and the Ministry of Interior trailed with 17.1% and 19.5% respectively.

Other agencies in the lowest tier include the Trademarks Registry (22.3%), the Midstream & Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (22.9%), the Bank of Industry (24.1%), NESREA (24.6%), the Securities and Exchange Commission (28.9%), and the Industrial Training Fund (30.8%).

Even more troubling is the dismal performance of institutions that are vital to the country’s economic stability.

Agencies responsible for investor onboarding, maritime security, aviation management, petroleum licensing and export financing are themselves drowning in dysfunction.

The Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission scored 44.0%, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission 45.1%, NEXIM Bank 46.9%, NAMA 48.8%, and NIMASA 42.4%.

The numbers paint a bleak picture: across sectors and mandates, governance is failing, and in some cases, collapsing, in agencies that Nigeria cannot afford to lose.

These institutions control multi-billion-dollar sectors but, according to the report, operate with “broken systems, slow approvals, opaque channels, and institutional complacency.”

The BFA Act, touted as the legal cure for Nigeria’s bureaucratic madness, digitisation, service transparency, harmonised timelines, is being ignored.

The worst-ranked MDAs failed across: digital integration; public-facing service disclosure; complaints and appeal channels; compliance reporting; data access; service timelines.

SaharaReporters gathered that several agencies still operate with paper files, no service windows, no digital trail, and no process feedback. Citizens are simply left to suffer.

Despite billions spent on “digital transformation,” identity and passport systems remain Nigeria’s most chaotic public interfaces.