FG to Save N120bn from Civil Service Reforms

• Nigeria’s weak per capita income hurting growth

Bolaji Adebiyi in Abuja and Obinna Chima in Lagos

The Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan for the transformation of the nation’s bureaucracy approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday will save the country about N120 billion within the next four years.

Details of the plan, which is targeted at improving efficiency in the civil service and cutting the cost of governance, was made available to THISDAY.

It showed that the savings would be delivered through the upscaling of the deployment of HR, a human resource management software that the federal government had deployed to help it weed out ghost workers from its pay roll.

According to the plan, the cleaning up of HR data on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) would save the nation about N60 billion in the first year of implementation, while another N60 billion would be gained in the following years ending in 2020.

Also to swell the treasury is an annual N2.5 billion savings from the digitalisation of the civil service, which is expected to eliminate paper trail cost and encourage transparency in government transactions.

The plan would, however, cost the federal government N1.6 billion in its first year (2017) and N6 billion at full implementation. About 65 per cent of this amount is expected to be provided by development partners.

The implementation plan approved by the FEC presided over by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo is instituted to give life to a four-year civil and public service reform strategy put together by the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) to make the nation’s bureaucracy more effective and efficient in its service delivery to the public.

It was transmitted to President Muhammadu Buhari in December last year and launched by Osinbajo in February this year.

A committee consisting of government agencies, leading private sector actors and development partners, was thereafter constituted to draw up an implementation plan for the strategy.

The Head of Service’s strategy listed a four-point goal: “To develop and institutionalise an Efficient, Productive, Incorruptible and Citizen-centred (EPIC) culture in the civil service; design and implement an Enterprise Content Management System (ECM); develop entrepreneurship culture and commercial orientation in the civil service; and improve welfare and benefit packages for civil servants.”

The strategy, the service head added, would also reposition government bureaucracy to serve as the bedrock for a sustainable global upward ranking trend for Nigeria on the Ease of Doing Business Index, explaining that the success of the implementation of the Executive Orders Nos. 001-003 of 2017 on the ease of doing business rested on the civil service.

The implementation plan, which would run from 2017 to 2020, hopes to achieve the goals of the reform strategy by training 25,000 civil servants through revamped core modules and the cultivation of 200 future leaders through a Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme (LEAD-P).

Also, 25 ministries would be provided with performance management system tools, routines, and dialogues to drive result-based performance, while at least three annual innovation challenges would be held to cultivate ideas, technologies, and ventures for enhanced service delivery, efficiency and productivity in the public service.

The implementation plan states that by the end of its first three years, there would have been marked “improvement in staff competencies and skills through well targeted and funded programmes across all grade levels; LEAD-P presidential cohort provided with resources, mentorship, and opportunities to succeed as future leaders”.

It added: “There would be a results-based performance and meritocratic environment for civil servants with clarity on metrics (e.g., individual KPIs) and linked to incentives (monetary and non-monetary) and clear career path value propositions (i.e., training, benefits and salary) that retains top talent.”

It said a cohort of senior external experts providing high-impact support would be provided, while a more innovative civil service that would bring in innovation from within and outside the service to improve service delivery through dedicated innovation unit and innovation challenges would be developed.

Details of the plan also showed that its implementation would deliver value-driven civil service with civil servants that would be efficient, productive, incorruptible and citizen-centred.

To ensure its successful implementation, the plan has a three-pronged governance structure, namely, the Presidential Briefing Meeting on Civil Service Reform, to be chaired by the president; the Civil Service Transformation Steering Committee, to be chaired by the Head of Service; and the Civil Service Strategy Implementation Committee.

Other members of the presidential briefing meeting are the vice-president as alternate chair, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Ministers of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Communications, Science & Technology, and private sector leaders to be nominated by the president.

Weak Per Capita Income

But as Nigeria seeks to reform her civil service, a report has shown that despite the country’s economic recovery, its per capita income is not growing fast enough because its population growth rate is outpacing GDP growth.

The report by Lagos-based Financial Derivatives Company (FDC), a financial advisory and research firm, titled: “Nigeria, a Country Divided by Income and Opportunity,” pointed out that as the economy slowly crawls out of a recession, there is evidence to show that Nigeria is afflicted by general poverty, with abject poverty in the North-eastern part of the country. This it attributed to the concentration of insurgency in the region.

Per capita income is often used to measure the average income in a given population, and is used to compare the wealth of one population with those of others.

It also measures a country’s standard of living and helps to ascertain a country’s development status. It is one of the three measures for calculating the Human Development Index (HDI) of a country.

Continuing, the report said Nigerian politicians in recent times seem obsessed with the lexicon “restructuring”, but do not know that “you cannot restructure poverty”.

It added: “The Nigerian economy is growing again, but income per capita is not growing fast enough and population growth is higher than GDP growth.”

It also revealed that the country’s Gini Coefficient in 2016, at 48 was below the benchmark of 50.
The Gini coefficient is a statistical dispersion that measures the income or wealth distribution of a nation’s residents. It is the most commonly used measure of inequality.

The report included a peer review comparing Nigeria with Ghana, Angola and South Africa, putting Nigeria’s per capita income at $2,178, GDP growth rate of -1.5 per cent in 2016 and a life expectancy of 53.34.

On the other hand, Ghana had an income per capita of $1,513.5, GDP growth of 3.4 per cent in 2016 and a life expectancy of 61.72, while Angola had an income per capita of $3,110.8, GDP growth of -3.45 per cent in 2016 and life expectancy of 53.09.

South Africa’s income per capita was put at $5,273.6, recorded GDP growth of 0.5 per cent and has a life expectancy of 59.24.

FDC said the peer review showed that there is income and regional inequality, adding that Nigeria is not so great.
Furthermore, the FDC report also showed the correlation between poverty and financial inclusion, stating that 45 per cent of the top Nigeria bank branches (FirstBank, Zenith and GTB) are located in the South-western part of the country, compared to 16.1 per cent in the South-south; 13.7 per cent in the North-central; 11.6 per cent in the South-east; 8.6 per cent in the North-west; and 3.9 per cent in the North-eastern part of the country.

It noted that 70 per cent of residents in the North-western part of the country are financially excluded, while 62 per cent of the population of the North-eastern Nigeria do not have access to financial services.

In the North-central zone, 39 per cent of residents are excluded from financial services, 31 per cent in the South-south, 28 per cent in the South-east, and 18 per cent in the South-west.

It noted that the most affluent Nigerians reside in Lagos and Abuja, while the rest of the country is grappling with poverty, with the North-east and the South-south, which have respectively grappled with an insurgency and militancy, being the worst hit.

The FDC report also showed that states that invest the least in education were likely to have a high incidence of poverty, adding that all the states in Southern Nigeria and Abuja invest more in education than their counterparts in the North.

The geopolitical zones with the lowest investment in education are the North-east and North-west.

On the way forward, the report said the federal and state governments, as well as the financial sector would have to improve payment and settlement systems in the country; ensure inclusive growth; increase investment in labour intensive activities; and invest in education and infrastructure.