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The federal government has moved Galaxy Backbone Ltd (GBBL), National Agency for Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) with nine other government institutions to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF).
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All the moved agencies will now be supervised by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to strengthen service delivery, according to a statement by Head Media and Communications, Office of the SGF, Segun Imohiosen, who confirmed the development.
His words: “Yes, some of these institutions are new additions to the office of the SGF, which signals the roles and importance President Bola Tinubu attaches to the office based on the unquestionable competence of Senator George Akume.”
Both the NIMC and GBBL were formerly under the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy. But government had earlier moved the NIMC to Ministry of Interior before this latest transfer contained in a document by the Cabinet Affairs Office named “Mandate of Ministries, Departments and Agencies and Schedule of Duties for Honourable Ministers, dated December 2023.”
By this development, the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy now only has four agencies under it. They are the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) and Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd.
According to the Director, Planning Research and Statistics, Abiodun Ogunmefun, the development will strengthen OSGF and make it more capable at driving the economy in line with the objectives of President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
His words: “When an agency has issues that are more than the strength of the supervising Ministry, they are temporarily transferred to the SGF office pending when those issues are resolved.”
Existing lapses in organisations better addressed in presidency
According to another source, the presidency has intentionally appointed several advisors in innovation, technology, employment and investment among other fields to “directly provide guidance on how agencies like GBBL, NIMC, NASENI and others moved are professionally managed to desired results.”
The GBBL was established in 2016 as an IT and shared services provider to provide technological support to the federal government’s ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). It is currently enmeshed in controversies around staff bloating and ‘corporate mis-direction among others.
The national identity commission was Established by the NIMC Act No. 23 of 2007 “to establish, own, operate, maintain and manage the National Identity Database in Nigeria, register persons covered by the Act, assign a unique National Identification Number (NIN) and issue General Multi-Purpose Cards GMPC to those who are citizens of Nigeria as well as others legally residing within the country.”
With this development, “it is expected that some of the existing lapses in these organisations will be better addressed within the presidency under the OSGF and they will be better positioned to achieve the newly introduced key performance indicators for MDAs of government,” the source added.
