Nigeria has The Economic Management Team (EMT), established in October 2023 and chaired by the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance.
President Tinubu then set up the Economic Management Team Emergency Taskforce (EET) on March 27th 2024 and tasked it to submit a comprehensive plan of economic interventions for 2024 within two weeks of its inauguration to the PECC, covering the next six months, immediate implementation.
The president also set up the Presidential Economic Coordination Council (PECC) to ensure robust and coordinated economic planning and implementation.
If it feels like a triplication, it is because it is. Stay with me; I will list the MDA that shows up on all three committees
1. Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance (EMT Chairman)
2. Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria
3. Ministry of Agriculture
4. Minister of Budget and Economic Planning
5. Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment
6. Minister of Power
Why can’t these six government folks form the economic team? Why should they be in three separate economic committees with correlating objectives?
The one curiosity I have is about the Ministry of Works. It appears on the PECC and EMT but not on the EET. Why does the administration not consider Works an “Emergency” or does not understand Works can be an economic intervention unit? That said, which team is in charge of the Nigerian economy today?
Well, it’s the Economic Management Team Emergency Taskforce (EET). The EET retains a mandate to formulate and implement an emergency economic plan.
This plan, when submitted, will cover the next six months. So, who is in this EET?
(1) Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance (Chairman of the EET)
(2) Minister of Budget and Economic Planning
(3) Minister of Power
(4) Minister of Agriculture and Food Security
(5) Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare
(6) Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment
(7) Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria
(8) National Security Adviser
(9) Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum
(10) Governor of Anambra State
(11) Governor of Ogun State
(12) Governor of Niger State
(13) Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service
(14) Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation
(15) GCEO, NNPC Limited
(16) Director-General, Nigeria Economic Summit Group
(17) Special Adviser to the President on Energy
(18) Dr. Bismarck Rewane, Economist
(19) Dr. Suleyman Ndanusa, Economist
Again, what is the point of the PECC if the EET job is to create and IMPLEMENT a six-month Economic Plan?
Why is the President not in the EET? Has the President delegated the economy to unelected bureaucrats? On whose mandates?
In summary, there is a famous saying that too many cooks spoil the broth. I think there are too many “cooks’ managing the Nigerian economy. This creates a scale of control problem.
You have Federal, State, and Private Sector interests developing and advising; it makes for good Kumbaya, but it is unwieldy