ABUJA – (Budget & National Planning Report) – As the implementation of the National Development Plans (MTNDP 2021-2025, 2026-2030 and the perspective plan – Nigeria Agenda 2050 gathers steam with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Ikanade Agba (Prince) has briefed the Press in Abuja on the visions of the plans and how far the Ministry has gone, regarding the preparation of the new National Development Plans.
While speaking at the conference organised as part of the Ministry’s strategies to share the visions of the plans with relevant stakeholders and seek their collaboration and ultimate buy-in on the plans, the Minister said that the Ministry has made significant progress. According to Agba, on the 4th of May 2020, the Ministry inaugurated a key Technical Working Group (TWG), the “Macroeconomic Framework and Growth Diagnostic” group to identify the policies and provide macroeconomic projections for the new plans, while taking into consideration the performance of the outgoing plans and sector policy documents in the past periods.
He also noted that on the 11th of June 2020, 25 TWGs were inaugurated to consider macroeconomic variables and human development indicators in relation to the 46 sectors of the Nigeria National Account Statistics. Agba said that the groups were charged to among others, review existing plans, policies, programmes and projects in their thematic areas; conduct SWOT Analysis of their areas and sectors; review assumptions, parameters and forecasts used in the previous sectoral plans and align them with current realities.
They were also expected to consult relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in their thematic areas for the relevant data; oversee public consultations where feasible and facilitate discussions to assess and review memoranda received from the public.
The Minister announced that after three months and two weeks of rigorous work, the Framework and Growth Diagnostics TWG produced a macroeconomic framework report which was hared with the Central Working Group (CWG) and presented to the remaining 25 TWGs on August, 2020 to guide the on-going work of the thematic areas. Agba added that the macroeconomic framework report would also be shared with the Steering Committee and Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) by the CWG in due course.
He stressed that most importantly, the Government was concerned with deepening the participation of all stakeholders in the development of the plans. He expressed the commitment of the Mijistry to producing truly national development plans and not just the Federal Government Plans. He iterated that for this reason, six State Governors, one from each of the six geopolitical zones and representatives of major political parties are involved at the Steering Committee level for the development of the plans.
He disclosed that consultations were on-going with the TWGs, key MDAs and other managers of key sectors of the economy, ssuring that the Ministry would continue to solicit input memoranda from all stakeholders for the purposes of incorporation into the plans. He maintained that the plans would be sufficiently comprehensive with the capacity to accelerate the attainment of various regional global Agendas, including the AU Agenda 2063, ECOWAS Integration Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals 2030.
“The successor Plan 2021-2025 will come into effect by January 2021 when the NV20:2020 and ERGP is expected to end by December 2020. The second MTNDP(2026-2030) will be due in February 2021, whilst the Nigeria Agenda 2050 will be due in July 2021,” the Minister revealed, soliciting the support of the Media in sensitizing the public and propagating the development of the plans at home as well the international community.
Speaking earlier, the Permanent Secretary for Budget and National Planning, Olusola Idowu said that the plans would also focus on creating jobs, deepening economic activities and providing enabling environments for the private sector to thrive.
In attendance at the briefing were the Director – Generals of Agencies and Parastatals under the Ministry: the Director General of the National Bureau of Statistics, the Direstor General for the Budget Office, Director General of NISER and the Director General for the Centre for Management Development. Also present were the Coordinators of the 25 TWGs, State Commissioners of Planning and other stakeholders who joined via zoom link.
After the meering, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Ikanade Agba addressed the Press on the visions of the new National Development Plans in Abuja.
