President Buhari Set to Merge EFCC, ICPC, reduce ministries from 42 to 19

President Buhari  has accepted the recommendation of the transition committee he raised a few weeks ago to slash the number of ministries from the present 42 to 19 with a view to saving cost and making them more effective and responsive to the needs of Nigerians.

Similarly, many of the ministries have been merged to ensure proper coordination of duties and ensure greater efficiency and service delivery.

The number of Federal Government departments and agencies had also been trimmed in line with the policy of the administration.

Effectively, it means that no fewer than 50 of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies that were not backed by relevant laws might be scrapped and their staff moved into relevant departments to save cost.

A presidency source said:

The point being made is that relevant MDAs that will exist under the present administration must be those backed by laws.

“What that means is that the era of doing things the wrong way to please certain persons in positions of power is over.”

Shedding light on some of the ministries that had been merged, the official pointed out that the Ministry of Aviation and relevant agencies had been subsumed with Inland Waterways and associated agencies.

Similarly, the Ministry of Agriculture has been merged with that of Water Resources under what the Presidency source described as the consolidation of larger ministries.

Also under the administration of Buhari, only 19 ministers and 17 ministers of state would operate as opposed to the previous arrangement where there were at least 42. Some ministries would be run by senior ministers while others would be manned by junior ministers to save cost.