The Federal Government has announced plans to launch a Medium Term National Development Plan 2021-2025 later in October.
The plan is aimed at lifting millions of Nigerians out of poverty and ensure economic stability, development and good governance.
This disclosure was made by the Minister of State for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, at a capacity building workshop for special advisors and technical assistants of ministers organised by the Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung in Abuja.
The development plan is coming 10 months after the expiration of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) (2017-2020).
The ERGP which was introduced in 2017 by the Federal Government was deployed to restore growth, invest in people and build a competitive economy.
Agba explained that the delay in the deployment of the National Development Plan was due to the current review of the succession plan by different stakeholders.
The minister also disclosed that the National Agenda 2050 was underway to replace the outgone vision 2020 plan adding that the plans were anchored on the government’s desire to address the prevalence of poverty by lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.
The minister said the plans would also put in place strategies to tackle Nigeria’s increasing population growth.
What you should know
The Economic Recovery and Growth Plan was developed by the Buhari-led administration to tackle the causes of the economic recession that the country got into in the second quarter of 2016 and ultimately change the national economic trajectory in a fundamental way.
It was also targeted at growing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country by 7% in 2020, driven by strong non-oil sector growth anchored by agriculture and food security, energy, transportation and industrialisation.
However, the Federal Government has been unable to meet most of its targets as the GDP growth rate of 0.11% at the end of 2020 falls short of the expected growth rate of 7% for the same period.
ERGP was aimed at ensuring a 9.90% inflation rate, oil production of 2.5 million barrels per day and unemployment rate of 11.23%, among others to be achieved in 2020.
However, available data at the end of 2020 showed that the unemployment rate was 33.3%, oil production stood at 1.42 mbpd, while inflation rate stood at 15.75%.