By Charles Pemu 
A new federal compliance audit has exposed a sweeping collapse in public sector delivery across Nigeria, revealing near-total disregard for the core principles of the Business Facilitation Act (BFA) 2022. The damning assessment confirms the daily frustrations of Nigerians who endure endless queues, opaque procedures, and institutional arrogance when dealing with key Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
According to the January–October 2025 BFA Compliance Ranking, compiled by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), more than half of the assessed MDAs failed to meet the minimum 50% benchmark. Disturbingly, 30 government institutions were classified as “structurally non-compliant and operationally failing.”
The data paints a bleak picture of institutional decay, showing a sharp collapse in performance across most federal agencies, with governance quality plummeting drastically outside of a select few top performers.
Only five MDAs managed to achieve strong compliance scores:
- Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board: $90.6\%$
- NDLEA: $89.3\%$
- Nigeria Customs Service: $86.6\%$
- NCC: $85.3\%$
- NPA: $84.2\%$
In stark contrast, several critical agencies—many of which control multi-billion-dollar sectors—were found to be barely functioning, operating with “broken systems, slow approvals, opaque channels, and institutional complacency.”
At the very bottom of the table sits the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), scoring a dismal $12.7\%$. It was closely followed by the Joint Tax Board at $14.8\%$ and the National Bureau of Statistics at $14.9\%$. The bottom tier also included the Federal Produce Inspection Service ($16.0\%$), NIPOST ($17.1\%$), and the Ministry of Interior ($19.5\%$).
Economic Stability at Risk
Even more troubling is the dismal performance of institutions that are vital to the country’s economic stability and investment climate. Agencies responsible for investor onboarding, maritime security, petroleum licensing, and export financing are themselves reportedly drowning in dysfunction:
- Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission: $44.0\%$
- Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission: $45.1\%$
- NEXIM Bank: $46.9\%$
- NAMA: $48.8\%$
- NIMASA: $42.4\%$
Institutional Breakdown and BFA Disregard
The report highlights that the BFA Act, which was specifically created to cure Nigeria’s bureaucratic madness through digitization, service transparency, and harmonized timelines, is being widely ignored.
The worst-ranked MDAs showed consistent failure across several critical compliance areas, including digital integration, public-facing service disclosure, complaints and appeal channels, and adherence to service timelines. Several agencies reportedly still operate entirely with paper files, lack proper service windows, have no digital trail, and fail to provide process feedback, leaving citizens to suffer systemic delays and zero accountability.