The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning Dr. Zainab Ahmed, has said previous national economic plans performed below expectations due to inadequate cooperation from sub-national governments.
A statement by special adviser, media and communications to the minister Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi on Friday, said she stated this at the 19th National Council on Development Planning (NCDP) meeting recently held Abuja, with the theme: “National Development Planning in Nigeria: Issues and Challenges”
She said that the notion was based on the assertion that the plans were more of federal government rather than national, adding that it denied previous plans of the needed cooperation from state governments, which led to little success recorded so far.
She however, said some previous plans were successful.
“You would agree with me that previous Plans witnessed varying degree of successes. For instance, the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020, which was crafted at the wake of the global economic meltdown of 2016, was able to pull Nigeria economy out of recession,” she said.
She added that the theme would stimulate robust discussions on a new adoptable approach towards formulation of effective national plans that will serve as successor to the NV20:2020 and the ERGP 2017-2020 which ended in December, 2020.
She added that the outbreak of COVID-19 calls for the development of resilient economy policy that could stand the test of time, calling for the cooperation of stakeholders.
“The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 and its myriad consequences have impacted so much on the economy and norms that it would take decades for the world to recover. The economy plunged into another wave of recession in 2020 which was, however, short-lived by proactive measures put in place by the current administration. This experience calls for an urgent strategy to develop a more resilient and sustainable economy model that could stand the test of time,” she noted.
“Achieving this would require maximum cooperation and collaboration at all levels of government. The ongoing Medium Term National Development Plans (MTNDP) 2021-2025 and Nigeria Agenda 2050 was designed to address these concerns.” She said.
