A former president of Nigeria’s Chamber of Commerce has renewed calls for the Federal Government to implement the long-stalled Oronsaye Report, warning that the country’s more than 900 ministries, departments and agencies are strangling the business environment.
Dele Oye, now chairman of the Alliance for Economic Research and Ethics, said the 2012 Oronsaye Committee found Nigeria then had 541 federal agencies and recommended cutting them to 163, projecting savings of ₦862 billion between 2012 and 2015 alone. Fourteen years later, despite partial approval by the Tinubu administration in 2023, the agency count has grown past 900 instead of shrinking.
Oye cited the FCCPC’s recent sealing of three milk factories in Onitsha as proof of regulatory overlap, noting that manufacturers must satisfy NAFDAC, SON, and the FCCPC simultaneously for similar mandates.
He also said revenue agencies deducted ₦658 billion as “cost of collection” from federation revenue in just the first half of 2025 alone, calling the current system “legalised extortion” that pushes small businesses into the informal sector.
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