By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed said on Monday that the federal government will now rely heavily on domestic resource mobilization from Non-Oil Revenue for the implementation of the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative (SRDI).
Speaking at the opening of the 28th Nigerian Economic Summit held at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja, the Minister said this will improve and further diversify government revenues and entrench fiscal prudence and value for money.
She said the theme of this year’s Summit, “2023 and Beyond: Priorities for Shared Prosperity”, organised by the ministry in collaboration with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), was carefully chosen to provide direction for stakeholders to examine the progress the present administration has made so in terms of achievement of the polices, programmes and projects encapsulated in the National Development Plan (NDP), 2021-2025.
The Minister said: “Over the next two days, we will have an opportunity to examine how far we have gone in implementing the strategies we have set out for sustainable economic growth and development as well as set priorities for shared prosperity beyond 2023.
“The discussion will be dimensioned along four sub-themes, namely: Delivering Macroeconomic Stability for Shared Prosperity; Investing in the Nigeria Future; Unlocking the Binding Constraints to Execution; and Reframing the Agenda for Transformational Leadership”.
Highlighting the achievements of the Buhari administration Mrs Ahmed said these include “transformational investments in infrastructure to restore our national railways and road networks”.
She stated that completed projects will be complemented by ongoing investments in Light Rail, Narrow and Standard Gauge Rail. Airport Terminals have been completed at Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt, and presently the Abuja Airport Runway is being reconstructed.
“Other investments in airports include the safety facilities and aeronautical meteorological service delivery. Work is also ongoing in the development of seaports and ancillary infrastructure.
Our efforts to ensure efficiency in the Power Sector led to the partnership with the German government under the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI), government intervention in four distressed electricity distribution companies and the constitution of the Board of the Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company”, the Minister added.
She also disclosed that under the Energy Transition Plan, efforts are also being made to transit from our reliance on oil derivatives to gas as a transitional fuel, as we also increase renewable sources such as solar and hydro in our energy mix, noting that, “We are focused on unlocking the economic potential of the non-oil and high employment generating sectors to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth and development”.
“Reforms in Agriculture are yielding results, leading to an improvement in net earnings of rural farmers to the sum of N174 billion in the areas of Cassava, Rice, Sorghum, Maize and Cotton production”, she added.
In his opening remarks, the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, said the nearly three decades of partnership between the public and private sectors has provided a veritable platform for dialogue on reforming the Nigerian economy.
While commending, the Chairman, Board and Management of the NESG, other partners and Sponsors for their support in sustaining this annual event, the Minister noted that Summit has over the years been essential to the sustenance of national dialogue on the economy because ” it frames our deliberations within the context of the aspirations for a better quality of life for our people”.
He said, “It discusses our vision of equity and social justice, enviable economic and political order we are committed to creating; and forms the basis of forging consensus by promoting and sustaining cooperation between the public and private sectors.
“Consequently, since the inception of the Summit, the nucleus of conversations between Government and the Private Sector had been targeted at building a resilient, virile and competitive economy.
Agba recalled that in 2016, the current Administration on the heels of the recession occasioned by the shock in the international oil market and disruptions in oil production in the Niger Delta, developed the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020 to restore growth, invest in the people, and build a globally competitive economy, adding that the conscientious implementation of the Plan helped in making Nigeria exit recession early.
“As we keep aspiring to attain the desired objective for Nigeria’s development, we built on the gains of the ERGP and successfully delivered the National Development Plan, 2021-2025. We are currently in the process of finalizing the Nigeria Agenda 2050. Broadly, all past Plans had the overarching goals of economic diversification, employment generation, infrastructure development, and poverty reduction.
” In addition to these, the NDP 2021 – 2025 has a unique objective of establishing a strong foundation for a concentric economic diversification, implying that the economy had already been diversified but the focus of the Plan is to deepen the diversification effort within the sectors such that each sector could substantially increase its contribution to GDP and create more jobs.
” The overall vision of the Plan, is to make Nigeria a country that has unlocked its potentials in all sectors of the economy for a sustainable, holistic and inclusive development. The Plan is designed to lift 35 million people out of poverty and generate 21 million full time jobs by 2025, thus setting the stage for achieving government’s target of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.
“The Plan is also unique in many respects: The process for its preparation was not only participatory and consultative, but inclusive and benefited from the lessons learnt from the implementation of previous Plans. It has three (3) Volumes structured around seven Cluster Areas, namely: Volume I which is the Policy document, while Volume II contains the prioritized costed capital Programmes and Projects that will form the foundation of the Federal Government’s annual budget.
“The Volume III deals with the legislative imperatives identified as binding constraints to Plan implementation and has identified 18 laws and 10 policies that constrained Plan implementation over the years. A Technical Working Team (TWT) comprising the Office of the President on Ease of Doing Business, relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and a renowned legal firm has been set-up to review these laws and policies with a view to enriching Plan implementation”, he added
In his welcome address, the Chairman of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), Mr. Asue Ighodalo said for Nigeria to build a resilient economy, it must grow its Gross Domestic Product to $9 trillion within the next 25yrs.
He said the the theme of this year’s summit tagged “2023 and Beyond: Priorities for Shared Prosperity” is a summation of Nigeria’s challenges as the the country can only share prosperity if it is prosperous.
He said “Government at all levels must identify new innovations in its determination to leave a much better country especially for a teeming population.
“We must succeed in transforming economy within a time frame in our agenda 2050 which has a time frame of 25yrs .
“However Nigeria must have specified target of increasing GDP per Capital in line with OECD countries and innovate different ways of thinking about economic development.
“Also, We will need to grow our GDP between $4.5trn dollars to $9 trillion in the next 25yrs, as such we need to build an economy of growing at about 15 per or more,” he said.
Speaking further, Ighodalo decried Nigeria’s low domestic production, noting that improvement in domestic production and macro economic stability will improve the country’s global competitiveness”.
The two day Summit which was declared open by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was attended by Kaduna state Governor, Nasir El rufai, Edo state Governor, Godwin Obaseki, their Gombe State Counterpart Inua Yahaya, who spoke virtually.