The Federal Government has said it has discovered some Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government with outdated policies.
This is as the government said plans were ongoing to revise the outdated policies to meet current realities.
The Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala-Usman, disclosed this in Abuja on Monday during the inauguration of the committee for the review and harmonisation of sectoral policies.
Bala-Usman noted the move was part of the efforts of the incumbent administration to enhance efficiency within the public sector
She said, “The Federal Government has deemed it fit to constitute this team that would look at how sectoral policies would be reviewed, how sectoral policies would be coordinated with enhanced collaboration across the sectors.
“We have noted the concern about some outdated policies that sit within our sectors and the need for us to engage with the respective ministries and respective stakeholders to come up with the current policy deployment that speaks to the realities of what is needed to achieve our eight presidential priorities.”
Bala-Usman assured all that the planned review would not affect activities at the affected MDAs.
She said, “These are ongoing work that will not hinder the deployment of existing policies within those ministries.
“What we seek to do is to review them, update them with the current realities, recognize where there may be contradictions or overlaps across sectors, and identify areas of interrelationship between sectoral ministries.
“And importantly, one of the aspects of the work is the need for us to have a national framework and template for policy formulation and implementation.”
The Director General of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Prof Ayo Omotayo, said the major hindrance to policy development in Nigeria has consistently been the tendency of MDAs to operate in isolation.
Omotayo said, “The bane of policy development in Nigeria has always been all MDAs working in silos. Mr President has deemed it fit that there is a need for harmony in what happens in the policy ecosystem and has appointed a Special Advisor to look into all of this.
“One thing we want to assure everybody is that NIPSS, together with other collaborating agencies will deliver to the nation a workable plan, and develop an implementation framework such that policies in Nigeria will no longer contradict themselves.”
