Nigeria to Unveil 5-Year Development Plan in October

By Adedapo Adesanya

As the country continues to charge towards growth, the federal government has disclosed that it plans to unveil a Medium-Term National Development Plan 2021-2025 in October.

The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mr Clem Agba, who announced this, said the 5-year development plan aimed at lifting millions of Nigerians out of poverty and ensuring economic stability, development and good governance.

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.

It was also targeted at growing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country by 7 per cent in 2020, driven by strong non-oil sector growth anchored by agriculture and food security energy, transportation and industrialisation.

However, the federal government did not meet the targets as plans to reduce inflation to a single digit, boost oil production to 2.5 million barrels per day, slash the unemployment rate to 11 per cent among others failed.

Instead, at the expiration of the plan, Nigeria’s real GDP grew by 0.11 per cent, the unemployment rate was 33.3 per cent, oil production stood at 1.42 million barrels per day, while the inflation rate stood at 15.75 per cent.

Speaking at a capacity building workshop for special advisors and technical assistants of ministers organised by the Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung in Abuja, Mr Agba explained that the succession plan was currently being reviewed by different stakeholders, hence the delay in its deployment.

The Minister also disclosed that the National Agenda 2050 was underway to replace the outgone vision 20:2020 plan.

He noted 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.

Mr Agba said the plans would also put in place strategies to tackle Nigeria’s increasing population growth.