Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, has said the vision of the National Development Plan (NDP) 2021-2025 is to make Nigeria a leading industrialising and reforming nation in Africa.
He said the plan was intended to make Nigeria a country that had unlocked its potential in all sectors of the economy for a sustainable, holistic and inclusive national development.
He said the plan was also to foster a private sector-led growth to help address the critical issues of jobs, wealth creation and poverty reduction.
Agba, who spoke on the occasion to mark the Independent Television/Radion Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Week 2021 and Award in Benin, Edo State capital, on Sunday, noted that the country was now moving decisively towards the reforms required to unlock local content development, sub-national economic diversification, competitiveness and economic growth.
This, he said, would lead to moderate, incremental progress in poverty reduction and job creation in the medium term.
Speaking on the topic: “The Medium Term National Development Plan (MTNDP) 2021 – 2025 and the Place of Common Man,” the minister said one of the overall objectives of the plan was to establish a strong foundation for a concentric diversified economy, with robust Micro Small Medium Enterprise (MSME) growth, and a resilient business environment.
According to him, “the plan is to invest in critical physical, financial, digital, and innovation infrastructure, build a solid framework and enhance capacities to strengthen security and ensure good governance, to enable a vibrant, educated, and healthy population.”
He stated that these objectives were underpinned by two broad sets of cross-cutting enablers: “Investing in the social infrastructure and services required to alleviate poverty, and promoting development opportunities across states to minimize regional economic and social disparities.”
He stressed that “planning helps to increase the rate of economic development through capital formation which results from raising income, saving and investment levels.
“Planning also helps to strengthen market mechanism by removing market imperfections, determining the amount and composition of investment and overcoming structural rigidities in the economy.”
Giving insight into the making and the process for the preparation of the National Development Plan (2021-2025) and the proposed Nigeria Agenda 2050, recently approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), the minister explained that it was inclusive and participatory, involving all critical stakeholders.
He said: “Also some of the considerations and pre work in the development of the new plan include lessons learnt from previous National Development Plans, analysis of binding constraints and negative feedback loops, impact of global and regional megatrends, among others.”
He continued: “It is also important to note that application of the concept of futurology was used in the preparation of the Plans. Futurology/ futurism is not only about postulating possible probable and preferable futures only, but also about creating the future we desire.
“This implies shaping and moulding the future into an image we would prefer which should not be limited by the prism of the present or by whatever may be in fashion at any moment.
“Next is the product space mapping/product complexity to achieve the various alternatives and identification of the key bottlenecks that need to be solved.
“The National Development Plan (NDP) 2021 – 2025 and Nigeria Agenda 2050 are Nigeria’s home-grown Medium and Long-term National Development Plans developed to succeed the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP 2017 – 2020) and Nigeria Vision 2020 (NV20:2020) which both ended in December 2020.
“In the preparation of MTNDP (2021 -2025) and Agenda 2050, the governance structure has three levels with Technical Working Groups (TWGs) as the base where all technical work was 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. This is co-chaired by Mr Atedo Peterside and Dr (Mrs) Zainab S. Ahmed (Hon. Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning).
“To truly reflect national outlook, the Steering Committee also has members drawn from the various segments of the society including six Governors from the six geo-political zones, President of umbrella Youth Organisations, two leaders of NASS Committee on National Planning, representatives of the two major religious organisations, President National Council of Women Society etc.”
In a historical excursion, the minister traced national development plan in the country to pre-independence era of 1946 when the first attempt at development planning was made.
According to him, Nigeria made a ten-year plan of development and welfare for Nigerians between 1946 and 1956 which was done by the colonial masters.
“Since independence, Nigeria had adopted and applied four national development plans; namely: the First National Development Plan (1962 – 1968); the Second National Development Plan (1970 – 1974); the Third National Development Plan (1975 –1980) and the Fourth National Development Plan (1981 –1985). The Fifth National Development plan did not see the light of the day before it was replaced by a new perspective plans (1986 – 1994).
“This new planning model provide an opportunity for a realistic long- term view of the problem of the economy. It involved a series of Integrated Development Initiatives under the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP).
“Some of the initiatives included rural development strategies such as Agricultural Development Scheme; National Accelerated Food Production Programme (NAFPP); and Directorate for Food, Road and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI).
“After SAP, Nigeria resorted to the use of (ad-hoc) short-term instruments for economic management i.e. the era of Rolling Plans (1990-1999).
“A rolling plan takes into account new information, improved data and analysis, and incorporates periodic revision into the planning machinery. Each revision takes a look at the future which is determined by the nature of factual circumstances.”
Agba praised ITV/Radio, saying from its humble beginning in 1997, it had grown to a national flagship with presence in several countries of the world through satellite.
He also praised the effort of media in concretising economic growth.
According to him, the media had been in the forefront for the growth and development of our country.
“Your role as the fourth estate of the realm have been very supportive and highly appreciated especially as you educate, entertain, criticise, and spur government and citizens into actions. This is aside from your historical role in the struggle for the independence of Nigeria on formation (15th of March, 1955 in Lagos).
“You struggled with other groups such as Nigerian Youth Movement, a platform for the nationalists, trade unions and professional groups for the betterment of our country,” Agba noted.
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