Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
The Federal Government, at the weekend, said that henceforth, annual budgets would be derived from National Development Plans.
Addressing newsmen on the progress made in developing the Medium Term National Development Plans 2021-2025 in Abuja, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba said that this was the reason the government was making wide consultations with the sub-national governments to ensure that discipline is entrenched in the system.
“These steps were all taken in the beginning to ensure that, henceforth, annual budgets are derived from National Development Plans, thereby fostering discipline in successive years. We intend to deepen consultations with sub-national governments to ensure that discipline is entrenched in the system if we are to make the desired changes in the economy” he said.
On the progress made so far in developing Medium Term National Development Plans (MTNDPs) 2021 – 2025 & 2026 – 2030 and the Perspective Plan, tagged “Nigeria Agenda 2050”, Agba stated that (National Vision) NV20:2020 was envisaged to place Nigeria among the top 20 economies in the world with a minimum Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$900 billion and a per capita income of not less than US$4,000 per annum at the end of 2020, while Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP) came as a child of necessity to pull Nigeria out of recession with negative GDP growth rate of 1.5 per cent in 2016 to the path of positive and sustainable economic growth.
According to him, eventhough Nigeria has not become one of the 20 top economies of the world, the implementation of ERGP was able to pull Nigeria out of recession.
“Although, Nigeria has yet to attain the 20th position in the World economy and the economy is not growing at double digit, it is, however, safe to state that implementation of ERGP pulled the economy out of recession unto the path of economic growth as the economy experienced eleven quarters of consecutive GDP growth since exiting recession.