EXCITING NEWS: TNG WhatsApp Channel is LIVE…
Subscribe for FREE to get LIVE NEWS UPDATE. Click here to subscribe!
The Nigerian government has vowed that it will not abandon but implement the Nigeria Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, NERGP, which is still at its development process stage, while setting up a Delivery Unit (DU) for the economic recovery plan.
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo made the vow at a Public Consultative Forum on the NERGP held at the State House in Abuja yesterday.
Osinbajo, who presided over the forum, assured that government is determined to put back the Nigerian economy on a sound footing through diligent implementation of the recovery and growth plan.
While acknowledging that there is suffering in the land occasioned by the current economic downturn, he pointed out that the years of deterioration and corruption cannot be remedied overnight.
Osinbajo said that notwithstanding, it is the responsibility and duty of government to ensure that the economy is put back on a sound footing and the slide in economic fortunes arrested for the benefit of the people and the country.
In the short term, the acting President said government has intervened in several ways to mitigate the sufferings of the people, including giving bailouts to State governments to enable them pay salaries of workers.
Also assuring on government’s determination to diligently implement the Plan, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, said major emphasis will be on implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Plan as government plans to set up a specially staffed Delivery Unit to drive implementation.
He said the Plan being discussed is a medium-term Plan, which is expected to drive Nigeria to a minimum GDP growth rate of 7% within the Plan period.
“Our goal is to have an economy with low inflation, stable exchange rates, and a diversified and inclusive growth,” the Minister said.
He emphasized that the key to success lies in the seriousness of the execution aspect of the process, stating that the immediate execution priorities of the NERGP are Agriculture and food security; Energy (power and petroleum); Small Businesses and Industrialization and stabilizing the Macroeconomic Environment.