The Federal Government is set to develop the country’s “Agenda 2050″ and a Medium-Term National Development Plan, MTNDP, 2021-2025 to coordinate sectoral approaches. The Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Clement Agba made this known while inaugurating a Central Working Group (CWG) for the programme in Abuja.
The MTNDP is being designed to succeed the current Nigeria Vision 20:2020 and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, ERGP, terminating in December, 2020. On the other hand, the Agenda 2050 is a long-term perspective plan. Agba said that the CWG would coordinate sectoral approaches to interventions for joint implementation of the plans. He said that the adopted approach would address anticipated challenges for preparing an evidence-based national development plan, long-term vision document as well as make recommendations to the ministry for implementation.
According to the minister, the group’s assignment includes to refine the scope where necessary, provide leadership, establish the strategy and schedule for the project. “They are also to develop management plans, including a monitoring evaluation framework and the structure for the national planning process.” Agba said that the group would convene high-level consultations where necessary designed to elicit commitment to national objectives for development. The minister said that the group would prioritise policies, programmes, projects and interventions for Nigeria’s rapid economic development and recommend strategies to support effective implantation of identified development priorities. “The CWG would coordinate progress reporting to the steering committee and serve as a clearing house for information sharing among the various layers within the institutional arrangement for the plans. “It will deliver key process outputs, including strategies for effective participation of states and non-state actors in the preparation and implementation of the plans.” Agba said.
The minister said that they would develop detailed documentation of programme for collaborative implementation with States, LGAs and non- and ensure that the final plan documents MTNDP 2020-2025 and 2050 meet the standard quality of good development plan that could be showcased anywhere in the world.
Recalling that, President Muhammadu Buhari Abuja formally launched the Economic Growth and Recovery Plan for a period of three years, covering 2017 to 2020. The launch took place at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The plan, which is the brainchild of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, contains 60 critical initiatives expected to help get Nigeria out of recession and reposition it on the path of sustained growth. It also focused on five execution priorities, which are central to achieving the 7% growth projected by the end of the Plan period. The priority areas include Stabilizing the Macroeconomic Environment; Achievement of Agriculture and Food Security; Expansion of Energy Infrastructure capacities (power and petroleum); Improving Transportation Infrastructure and Driving industrialization principally through local and small business enterprises. Speaking at the brief ceremony that preceded the meeting of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, President Buhari said his government was determined to turn Nigeria from a consumer nation to a producing one. He said: “I want to assure all Nigerians that we are approaching the solution to our economic challenges with the same will and commitment we have demonstrated in the fight against corruption, terrorism and militancy. “The Economic Recovery and Growth Plan brings together all our sectoral plans for agriculture and food security, energy and transport infrastructure, industrialization and social investments together in a single document. ”It builds on the Strategic Implementation Plan and sets out an ambitious roadmap to return the economy to growth; and to achieve a 7% growth rate by 2020.
“Our aim, simply put, is to optimize local content and empower local businesses. We seek not just to take the Nigerian economy out of recession but to place it on a path of sustained, inclusive and diversified growth. ”We are determined to change Nigeria from an import dependent country to a producing nation. We must become a nation where we grow what we eat and consume what we produce. We must strive to have a strong Naira and productive economy.” Earlier in his welcome address, the ex-Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, said the initiative was in line with the change agenda of the government to revive the ailing economy. He said: “Right from when he was campaigning, he has shown a single-minded commitment to change Nigeria in a fundamental way. He promised three things. First, to restore security, particularly in the North East. Second, to fight corruption, and third, to repair the broken economy. “Whilst the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan is being formally launched today, its implementation is not starting today. This is because the Plan puts together in one place, for easy access, all the sectoral plans that the government has been working on, from inception.
It is on record that, as the current Vision 20:2020 and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) terminate in December 2020, the Federal Government, inaugurated three technical working groups to design a fresh development plan. While inaugurating the technical committees in a virtual meeting in Abuja, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, said that the plan was expected to address developmental challenges in all aspects of the country’s national life within the timeframe. Three different technical committees were inaugurated including, Agriculture and Water Resources and Cross cutting issues; Technical Working Groups (TWGs) for the development of Medium Term National Development Plan (MTNDP) 2021 -2023 and the Nigeria Agenda 2050. The members who were drawn from the various segments of the Nigerian society include, six governors from the six geo-political zones; presidents of umbrella youth organisations, two leaders of National Assembly committee on national planning; representatives of two majors religious organisations, president, National Council of Women Society etc. They are expected to review existing plans, policies, programmes and projects in in their thematic area; conduct SWOT Analysis of their thematic area/sectors; review the assumptions, parameters and forecasts used in the previous sectorial plan and align with current realities, consult relevant ministries, departments and agencies in their thematic area for the relevant data.
“As you may be aware, these initiatives are designed to succeed the current Vision 20:2020 and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP 2017-2020)” he said, adding that econometric and input-output models will be used for the preparation of macroeconomic framework for the two Medium Term National Development Plan 2021 -2025 and 2026-2030 while Dynamic Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) and System Dynamic-based Integrated Sustainable Development Goals simulation (SDG) models for Nigeria Agenda 2050.
“The inauguration of the technical working groups became imperative given the fact that the existing plans are expected to lapse in December, since the 2020 and the 2021 Budgets are to be guided by the plan” he said.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Olusola Idowu, had said that her ministry identified 26 broad and key thematic areas of the economy on which the technical working committees have been set up.
This government is committed to prudently managing and stopping waste and leakages in the system, there will be no room for duplication of offices and responsibility; the Buhari led government has shown that, it is its desire that everybody benefits from the goodies that the change mantra will bring to the country and not just a few people.
The Buhari led government has been working round the clock to ensure that the suffering of Nigerians are assuaged and ameliorated, by laying a solid foundation for a greater and better tomorrow. The campaign of calumny against the government of President Buhari has been largely predicated on ethnicity and tribal particularism as well as politics of vendetta, especially by the opposition party that roundly defeated at the polls after many years of misrule, bad governance and monumental fraud. The other point which cannot be waved aside is the fact that, one of the cardinal policies of this administration is the war against corruption, and since this government came on board, never like before, it has consistently waged relentless war against graft in the country; and the high and mighty are not spared; now in a surreptitious manner, corruption is fighting back in a very dirty and desperate manner. It is germane to observe and rightly so that, since the present administration came on board under the leadership and watch of President Muhammadu Buhari, the president and his team has worked relentlessly to bail out the economy from the recession in which it is presently enmeshed, an economic situation which is self-inflicted as a result of bad governance, mismanagement, corruption and apparent lack of accountability of past leaders in the country. They dissipated the scarce financial resources of the country on conspicuous consumption as well as hedonistic and epicurean lifestyles; and refused to save for the rainy day. It is this multifaceted errors of the past that the present government is trying to put right, unfortunately, the present government has been severely criticized by those who created the economic challenges in the first place, particularly members of the past administration, who mercilessly plunder and pillage the resources of the country on selfish individual desires, thereby neglecting vast majority of the people.
This is contrary to some spurious and erroneous claims in some quarters that this government is idle and doing nothing about the socio-economic miasma in which the country is presently enmeshed, unfortunately this unfounded and baseless claim is gaining currency because of the hardship Nigerians are presently going through. Those who created these problems are now behaving like the much needed messiah to rescue the country from this crisis, but what did they do for the country and their people when they were in power? The gang-up and conspiracy against the Buhari led government is because of the anti-corruption crusade of the present administration, hence, their inability to make cheap money and fleece the country of funds needed for development. Undoubtedly, this government is working hard and even world leaders know this fact, hence the need for all Nigerians to rally round the government and move the country forward; and stop the issue of violence, blackmail, vendetta, corruption and anything that can inhibit growth and development in the polity. Therefore, the present government is working assiduously to plan properly for the future of the country, thereby blocking all the wastages and loopholes in the system.
*** Written by Jide Ayobolu.
