President Muhammadu Buhari has directed ministers and permanent secretaries to redouble their efforts and work in synergy toward the delivery of his administration’s set targets to improve the livelihood of Nigerians. The president, who gave the directive at the end of the two-day Mid-term Ministerial Performance Review Retreat, also instructed the ministers to ramp up implementation of their mandates along the nine priority areas of the administration.
The president also stressed the need for synergy between the fiscal and monetary authorities in the country to keep the economy on the trajectory of growth. He noted that intensive discussions at the retreat provided an opportunity to reflect on what his administration had done and areas it needs to improve on and refocus attention. “The retreat provided an opportunity for us to undertake an objective assessment of our stewardship in line with the contract we signed with the Nigerian people to deliver on our electoral promises. “From the assessment report and discussions at this retreat, I am glad to note that progress has been made towards the achievement of our objectives. “The independent performance assessment report presented on day one of the retreat, indicates that significant progress had been achieved in the delivery of the ministerial mandates.
“Distinguished participants, the discussions at the retreat have prompted the need for us to ramp up implementation on the deliverables. We must close the gaps in our implementation efforts to ensure that we attain set targets by 2023,’’ he said. Buhari therefore directed the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to immediately begin the process of convening quarterly coordination meetings for each priority area based on the collaborative results framework. According to him, the aim of these meetings is to ascertain status of implementation across the nine priority areas, identify bottlenecks, and proffer immediate solutions. “All ministers and permanent secretaries must be in attendance.
These are not meetings to delegate,’’ he said. The president further instructed the Office of the SGF to immediately commence engagement with stakeholders to agree and push forward a framework for the institutionalisation of the Central Delivery Coordinating Unit. Similarly, the president directed the head of service to, as a matter of urgency, invest in capacity strengthening of the planning, research and statistics departments in all MDAs. (NAN)