By Musa Adamu
Abuja
The supervising Minister of National Planning, Ambassador Bashir Yuguda, has advised public and private institutions in Nigeria to embrace the culture of strategic planning as a means of achieving evidence-based growth and development goals.
He informed that the National Planning Commission (NPC) had spearheaded Nigeria’s return to strategic development planning, after about three decades of abandonment.
He said strategic planning was a very useful reform based management tool of economic governance the world over.
The minister stated this in his keynote address at the 2014 Conference of Directors of Planning, Research and Statistics (PRS) in the Public Service, taking place in Minna, Niger state.
“Strategic planning has over the years been universally recognised as a very useful reform based management tool of economic governance. It serves as a veritable framework for coordinating the economic and social activities that takes place at the national and sector levels, especially in developing economics or states where resources are limited with institutional weaknesses,” he said.
The DPRS conference in the public service is an annual event jointly organised by the commission, office of the head of civil service of the federation, New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Nigeria and office of the senior special assistant to the president on MDGs (OSSAP – MDGs).
Speaking further, he also described the highly collaborative approach in the organisation of the Conference as proving most productive and rewarding in the recent past, saying it needed to be sustained.
He described the theme of the 2014 conference “Socio-Economic Reforms for Inclusive and Transformative Development in Nigeria,” as most appropriately and timely, adding that it was consistent with the aspirations of the government’s Transformation Agenda and NV20:2020.
He also stated that the aim of the conference was to provide a veritable platform for interaction and cross fertilisation of ideas among the directors and other senior level officials of the planning, research and statistics department with a view to strengthening the capacity of officials of the public service for enhanced implementation of strategic plans, service delivery and transformation of Nigerian economy.
