Federal government puts finishing touches to its Nigeria Agenda 2050 development plan

FINANCE minister Zainab Ahmed has revealed that the federal government is putting finishing touches to a new economic blueprint to be known as Nigeria Agenda 2050 that will serve as a successor to Vision 2020.

Revealing this in Abuja yesterday at the 28th Nigerian Economic Summit, Ms Ahmed said Vision 2020 lapsed two years ago, so there is a need to replace it with another development plan.  According to the minister, the government had earlier formulated the National Development Plan (NDP) 2021- 2025 to succeed the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan 2017- 2020.

Ms Ahmed added: “We are in the second year of the NDP 2021-2025 with the private sector taking the lead. Although, challenged by a shortfall in revenues, the government has kept its pact by prioritising capital releases in favour of ongoing critical infrastructural projects in power, roads, rail, agriculture, health and education sectors.

She pointed out  that resources were being mobilised with less emphasis on oil revenues. According to Ms Ahmed, financing of the NDP 2021-2025 would rely heavily on domestic resource mobilisation from non-oil revenue sources through the results of the Strategic Revenue Growth Initiative and Finance Acts.

“This is with a view to strengthen the Nigerian economy post Covid-19 pandemic. This will improve and further diversify government revenues and entrench fiscal prudence and value for money,” she said.

Also, Ms Ahmed said that Nigeria Agenda 2050 seeks to increase the country’s per capita gross domestic product to $33,000 per capita. She commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his continuous support to the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) over the last seven years.

Ms Ahmed said that the collaboration between the finance ministry and the NESG group had provided the platform for regular dialogue and engagement with the private sector and other stakeholders. When Vision 2020 were first drafted, it was designed to make Nigeria one of the world's top 20 economies by 2020.