The federal government has officially launched the Nigeria Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) meant to restructure the country and its economy from 2017 to 2020.
The Minister of Budget and National Planning Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma in his speech at the event which took place at the state house Abuja yesterday said, whilst the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan is being formally launched today, its implementation is not starting today because the plan puts together in one place, for easy access, all the sectoral plans that the government has been working on from inception including the Strategic Implementation Plan for the 2016 budget.
He explained that the objectives of the ERGP are to restore growth, invest in our people and build a globally competitive economy. “As our President, has repeatedly said, our aim is to build a self-reliant economy. A country in which we grow what we eat, use what we make and produce what we consume. A country which embraces the world of technology, ideas and investment from everywhere but domesticates these ideas for the use of our people. A country which produces high quality goods, not just for our own consumption but enough to export to our neighbours and indeed, the world,” he said.
Furthermore, he explained that to achieve this, the plan articulates up to 60 interventions and initiatives that must be executed within the next four years to tackle and remove impediments to growth to make markets function better and to leverage the power of the private sector.
In spite of the 60 initiatives, the plan focuses on five execution priorities, which are central to achieving the 7 per cent growth projected by the end of the Plan period. They include stabilizing the macroeconomic environment, achievement of agriculture and food security, expansion of energy infrastructure capacities (power and petroleum), improving transportation infrastructure and driving industrialization principally through local and small business enterprises.