On Monday, the Presidency introduced the Citizens’ Delivery Tracker, aiming to establish a robust communication channel between citizens and the government regarding the Bola Tinubu administration’s eight priority areas. 

Hadiza Bala-Usman, the President’s Special Adviser on Policy and Coordination, revealed this during the launch event of the CDT in Abuja on Monday.

“The platform is available as a web link (app.cdcu.gov.ng) and will be available as an app for download in the next few months,” said Bala-Usman.

Bala-Usman remarked that Monday’s unveiling marks the culmination of a months-long process initiated since Tinubu’s announcement of ministerial assessment plans at the Cabinet Retreat for ministers and heads of government agencies last November. To establish key performance indicators, the presidential aide elaborated, “The CDCU conducted numerous bilateral meetings with Ministries, Departments, and Agencies within a six-week period.” 

The eight priority areas include: Reforming the economy to achieve sustained inclusive growth, strengthening national security for peace and prosperity, enhancing agriculture for food security, and harnessing energy and natural resources for sustainable development. 

Additionally, the focus is on improving infrastructure and transportation as catalysts for growth, prioritizing education, health, and social investment as fundamental pillars of development, expediting diversification through industrialization, digitization, creative arts, manufacturing, and innovation, and enhancing governance for effective service delivery. 

In an interview on TVC last October, Bala-Usman disclosed that the federal government would prioritize citizen engagement to ensure Nigerians are involved in the ministerial assessment process.

“We’re going to deploy an application, a software where citizens are able to report back on project-based deliverables that the federal government has committed to doing within the period to 2024,” she explained.

Detailing the process at the time, she said, “We sat with the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. We have worked effectively to define exactly the deliverables for each ministry.

“And those deliverables are also deliverables that I mentioned cascade to the agencies of government. So, for example, you have the sectoral deliverables for a sector in health, and everything that is contained within the value chain or the ecosystem within that sector will be contained within the deliverables.

“Those deliverables are translated into key performance indicators for the respective ministries. Once you have your key performance indicators, you’re able to clearly understand what your deliverables are over the period of the four years of the administration.”

In late January, a team of at least 140 officials was assembled to monitor and evaluate the performance of federal ministries, departments, and agencies in anticipation of the inaugural assessment exercise scheduled for the end of the current month. 

These officials participated in the third technical retreat for delivery desk officers of federal ministries, focusing on the execution of presidential priorities and ministerial deliverables. 

The retreat commenced on Wednesday, the 24th of that month, in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State. They were selected from a total of 35 federal government ministries, departments, and agencies.

“It will involve a permanent secretary and directors of planning and other officials, four each from 35 ministries.

“They are considering the modalities of the assessment, the key performance indicators and the reporting mechanisms, and all of those,” an official at the CDCU told the PUNCH..