The Transparency Watch Initiative, a civic accountability and governance assessment organisation, has ranked the North East Development Commission (NEDC) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) among Nigeria’s best performing public institutions in its latest Fiscal Responsibility and Institutional Performance Report.
The report, released in Abuja on Friday by Ifure Ataifure the group’s Executive Director, assessed federal agencies based on transparency practices, fiscal discipline, project implementation, regulatory efficiency, public responsiveness, and contribution to national development goals.
According to the report, the NEDC and NCC emerged among the top-performing agencies alongside the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, Nigerian Ports Authority, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Debt Management Office, Nigeria Customs Service, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Rural Electrification Agency and National Identity Management Commission.
Ataifure said the ranking followed months of independent institutional monitoring, field assessments, stakeholder engagement, and analysis of public sector performance indicators across critical sectors of the economy.
Highlighting the performance of the North East Development Commission, Ataifure said the commission distinguished itself through intervention-driven development projects and visible impact across insurgency-affected communities in the North-East.
According to him, the agency demonstrated consistency in infrastructure rehabilitation, humanitarian interventions, education support, healthcare delivery, housing projects, and livelihood restoration despite the difficult security conditions in the region.
“The NEDC has shown measurable commitment to post-conflict recovery and institutional accountability in one of the most difficult operating environments in the country,” Ataifure said.
“At a time when public confidence in many government institutions remains weak, the commission has continued to demonstrate visible project execution and strategic coordination of development interventions across communities devastated by insurgency.”
The report also noted that the commission’s stakeholder engagement framework and community-focused interventions had helped strengthen public confidence in government presence across several communities in the North-East.
On the telecommunications sector, the report described the Nigerian Communications Commission as one of the country’s most stable and professionally managed regulatory agencies.
Ataifure said the NCC had maintained regulatory consistency while driving broadband expansion, digital inclusion, consumer protection, and investor confidence within the telecommunications industry.
According to him, the commission’s ability to sustain industry stability despite inflationary pressures, infrastructure challenges, and rising operational costs facing telecom operators reflected institutional maturity and strategic leadership.
“The NCC remains one of the strongest examples of regulatory efficiency within Nigeria’s public sector,” he said.
“Its contribution to digital access, communications stability, broadband penetration, and economic productivity continues to position the telecommunications sector as one of the country’s most resilient growth drivers.”
The report particularly commended the NCC’s approach to balancing consumer protection with investor sustainability, describing its regulatory framework as disciplined, predictable, and development-oriented.
The Transparency Watch Initiative stated that both institutions demonstrated stronger institutional coherence than many public agencies often hampered by bureaucratic inefficiency, weak implementation culture, and poor accountability structures.
Ataifure added that although no public institution should be exempt from scrutiny, agencies delivering measurable public value deserved recognition to encourage a stronger culture of performance across government institutions.
He said Nigeria’s development aspirations would remain difficult to achieve unless public institutions embraced transparency, operational discipline, and result-oriented governance.
According to the report, the performances recorded by the NEDC and NCC show that effective governance remains achievable when institutions are guided by competence, strategic leadership, and commitment to public service.
