Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade
Agba, has assured Nigerians that the Federal Government is committed to
facilitating a private sector-driven process of inclusive and
participatory national development plans.
Agba spoke on Tuesday during the virtual inauguration of the Central
Working Group (CWG) for the development of Nigeria Agenda 2050 and the
Medium-Term National development Plans (MTNDPs) (2021-2025) and
(2026-2030).
The CWG is chaired by former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) and Special Adviser to the President on Finance and
Economy, Dr (Mrs) Sarah Alade while Special Adviser to the President on
Economic Matters, Office of the Vice President, Dr Adeyemi Dipeolu, is
the Deputy Chair.
He said, “this will be a truly national development plan led by the
organised private sector and enabled by Government.”
“The planning process will be inclusive and participatory with full
involvement of the sub-nationals (State and Local Governments), three
major political parties, the National Assembly, youth and women
organisations, physically-challenged and other relevant stakeholders.
“The governance structure has three levels with Technical Working Groups
(TWGs) as the base where all technical works will be carried out before
escalation to the Central Working Group (CWG), which has oversight
functions on the TWGs.
“At the top is the Steering Committee, which has oversight on all the
planning process and this is chaired by Mr Atedo Peterside and
co-chaired by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr
(Mrs) Zainab Ahmed,” the minister stated.
He explained that the initiatives were designed to be successor plans to
Nigeria’s Vision 20:2020 and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan
(ERGP) 2017-2020, pointing out that the plans were to address
development challenges in all aspects of the country’s national life
within the agreed time-frame.
The minister noted that the ministry had agreed to use Econometrics and
Input-Output Models for the preparation of the macro-economic framework
for the MTNDP 2021-2025 and the subsequent ones such as MTNDP 2026-2030
while it would deploy the Dynamic Computable General Equilibrium (CGE)
and System Dynamic-based Integrated Sustainable Development Goals
Simulation (SDG) Models in developing the Nigeria Agenda 2050.
He disclosed that in order to achieve a robust long-term perspective
plan, he had recommended the application of the concept of futurology
which, according to him, “is not only about postulating possible,
probable and preferable futures only, but also about creating the future
we desire.”
According to him, “The inauguration of the CWG became imperative given
the fact that the existing Plans are expected to lapse in December 2020
and the 2021 budget is to be guided by the Plan. There is therefore
limited time to deliver on the task at hand.”
The minister stated that the CWG would, among other terms of reference,
coordinate sectoral approaches to highlight cross-cutting interventions
for joint implementation, adding that “the adopted approach must address
anticipated challenges of preparing an evidence-based national
development plan and long-term vision document and make recommendations
to the Minister for implementation.”
He tasked the CWG to produce and submit the final draft of the MTNDP
2021-2025 to the Steering Committee not later than September 30, 2020,
and the second MTNDP 2026-2030 in February 2021 while the final report
for the Nigeria Agenda 2050 should be submitted in July 2021.
Agba explained that given the important roles that Nigeria plays in the
global economy, the plan must, as a matter of conscious effort, be
comprehensive and have the capacity to accelerate the attainment of
various regional and global Agendas, including the AU Agenda 2063,
ECOWAS Integration Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals 2030.
Responding, Chair of the TWG, Dr. Sarah Alade, expressed the commitment
of the group’s members to delivering a well-articulated and robust
national plan for the stability of the Nigerian economy.
She said the Nigerian development agenda would be guaranteed by the
sustainability of the plans, adding that for the set-out goals to be
achieved, there must be a seamless delivery process and ascertained
source of fundraising.
Alade, however, cautioned, that “Development planning process without
functionality makes plans become mere dreams.”