The Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, has revealed that the Federal Government of Nigeria has made tremendous progress in her effort to reposition the economy of the country.
The Minister made this known when he received the Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Nigeria, Yutaka Kikuta, in his office, on Monday, January 27th, 2020.
He said “We want to sustain what happened last year in terms of early budget passage, we will continue to work with the National Assembly to repeat the feat. If we fail to repeat it, it means that what happened was just a chance or a fluke but if we do, it means that we have a process and a plan that we intend to build on”.
According to the Minister, the return of the Budget cycle to January was deliberate and in line with the current administration’s economic recovery plan, which was culminating in the development of another National Development Plan intended to succeed the ERGP.
He continued that the National Development Plan would be a 10-year plan for Nigerians and it would be broken down into two 5-year medium term plans, from which the annual budgets would be drawn. He expressed Government’s readiness to make the process of the National DevelopmentPplan very inclusive.
Prince Clem Agba commended the Government of Japan for the development assistance and the cordial relationship that has existed between the two countries in the past 60 years and promised to do everything in his power to ensure that the plans were actualised.
The Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Nigeria who spoke earlier, also commended President Muhammadu Buhari on his economic policies and priorities, saying the administration was on the right track to economic recovery and sustainability.
He disclosed that he was in the Ministry to discuss ways of crystallizing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s promise of assisting to strengthen the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC), with a grant of 2billion Japenese Yen, as well as support the National Defense College.
“We support President Buhari’s second term because we deeply believe in his priority areas and we feel the Federal Government is on the right track”. Yutaka Said.
Victoria Agba-Attah
Director Information MBNP
