FG releases its 2017-2020 economic recovery and growth plan

- Nigeria has the potential to become a major player in the global economy by virtue of its human andnatural resource endowments
- However, this potential has remained relatively untapped over the years
- The Muhmmadu Buhari administration has drawn out a plan to ensure the situation is no longer the same
After a shift from agriculture to crude oil and gas in the late 1960s, Nigeria’s growth has continued to be driven by consumption and high oil prices.

President Buhari had promised to diversify the Nigerian economy
Previous economic policies left the country ill-prepared for the recent collapse of crude oil prices and production.
The structure of the economy remains highly import dependent, consumption driven and undiversified.
The current administration recognizes that the economy is likely to remain on a path of steady and steep decline if nothing is done to change the trajectory.

The government has gone ahead to launch the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), a medium term plan for 2017 – 2020.
It has been developed for the purpose of restoring economic growth while leveraging the ingenuity and resilience of the Nigerian people.
In this article, NAIJ.com will focus on the broad objectives of the plan. They are:


1. Restoring Growth
To restore growth, the plan focuses on achieving macroeconomic stability and economic diversification. Macroeconomic stability will be achieved by undertaking fiscal stimulus, ensuring monetary stability and improving the external balance of trade.
Similarly, to achieve economic diversification, policy focus will be on the key sectors driving and enabling economic growth, with particular focus on agriculture, energy and MSME led growth in industry, manufacturing and key services by leveraging science and technology.

The revival of these sectors, increased investment in other sectors, less reliance on foreign exchange for intermediate goods and raw materials and greater export orientation will improve macroeconomic conditions, restore growth in the short term and help to create jobs and bring about structural change.


2. Investing in our people
Economic growth is beneficial for society when it creates opportunities and provides support to the vulnerable. The ERGP will invest in the Nigerian people by increasing social inclusion, creating jobs and improving the human capital base of the economy.


a. Social inclusion: The federal government will continue to provide support for the poorest and most vulnerable members of society by investing in social programmes and providing social amenities. Targeted programmes will reduce regional inequalities, especially in the North-east and Niger Delta.


b. Job creation and youth empowerment: Interventions to create jobs are a core part of the ERGP, which aims to reduce unemployment and under-employment, especially among youth. The ERGP accordingly prioritizes job creation through the adoption of a jobs and skills programme for Nigeria including deepening existing N-Power programmes, and launching other public works programmes.
The partnership for job creation will also focus on the policies required to support growth and diversification of the economy by placing emphasis on Made-in-Nigeria, public procurement which takes account of local content and labour intensive production processes. All initiatives under job creation would prioritize youth as beneficiaries. Accordingly, all capacity building and skills acquisition interventions will be targeted at youth-dominated sectors such as ICT, creative industries, and services. Furthermore, concerted efforts would be made to encourage youth to venture into other labour intensive sectors such as agriculture and construction.


c. Improved human capital: The federal government will invest in health and education to fill the skills gap in the economy, and meet the international targets set under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The ERGP will improve the accessibility, affordability and quality of healthcare and will roll out the National Health Insurance Scheme across the entire country. It will also guarantee access to basic education for all, improve the quality of secondary and tertiary education, and encourage students to enrol in science and technology courses.



3. Building a Globally Competitive Economy
Restoring Nigeria’s economic growth and laying the foundations for long-term development requires a dynamic, agile private sector that can innovate and respond to global opportunities. The ERGP aims to tackle the obstacles hindering the competitiveness of Nigerian businesses, notably poor or non-existent infrastructural facilities and the difficult business environment. It will increase competitiveness by investing in infrastructure and improving the business environment.


a. Investing in infrastructure: The ERGP emphasizes investment in infrastructure, especially in power, roads, rail, ports and broadband networks. It builds on ongoing projects and identifies new ones to be implemented by 2020 to improve the national infrastructure backbone. Given the huge capital layout required to address the massive infrastructure deficit in the country, the private sector is expected to play 

a key role in providing critical infrastructure, either directly or in collaboration with the government under public private partnership (PPP) arrangements.


b. Improving the business environment: Nigeria’s difficult and often opaque business environment adds to the cost of doing business, and is a disincentive to domestic and foreign investors alike. Regulatory requirements must be more transparent, processing times must be faster, the overall economy must be more business-friendly. The ERGP will build on the efforts of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) and track progress using the metrics of the WorldBank’s Doing Business Report. The target is to achieve a top 100 ranking in the World Bank’s Doing Business index by 2020 (up from the current ranking of 169).


c. Promoting digital-led growth: To make the Nigerian economy more competitive in the 21st century global economy, its industrial policy must be linked to a digital-led strategy for growth. The ERGP will build on The Smart Nigeria Digital Economy Project to increase the contribution from ICT and ICT-enabled activity to GDP. The overall goals of a digital-led strategy for growth centre on the establishment of an ICT ecosystem in Nigeria.

This is enabled through significantly expanding broadband coverage, increasing e-government, and establishing ICT clusters, starting in the SEZs. Government will also drive a programme to build the skills in this sector, focusing on training IT Engineers in software development, programming, network development and cyber security.

Source Naij.com