Nigeria’s Minister of State-Budget and National Planning, Clement Agba says the new National Development Plan NDP 2021-2025 will help the country accelerate employment creation in all parts of the country.
Addressing State House Correspondents on Wednesday at the end of the Federal Executive Council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, the Minister said youths stand to gain a lot from the four-year plan.
“From us in the Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, ours wasn’t a memo to council. What happened today was the unveiling of the National Development Plan by His Excellency, Mr President.
“You will recall that the National Development Plan 2021 to 2025, which is the successor plan to the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan was approved by the Federal Executive Council on November 10. The difference with this plan is that it provides a mechanism to engage, empower, and employ our teeming energetic youth.
“The plan puts opportunities for inclusiveness for young people, women, people with special needs, and the vulnerable ones, mainstreaming women’s gender into all aspects of our social, economic and political activities,” he said.
Agba further disclosed that the plan has a financing plan that intends to achieve 15 percent revenue that will also increase the country’s Gross Domestic Product GDP.
He said: “This plan also has a financing plan to increase revenue to 15% of GDP. Currently, revenue to GDP is 7%. This plan also separates sports from the youth and takes sports as business.”
The Minister of State-Budget and National Planning noted that the Development Plan has three volumes, out of which only one was made public and the remaining two would be exclusively used by the government.
“For the first time in our planning history, we have three volumes of the plan. In the past, we have always had one volume, which is the plan itself. But this time, we have three volumes. Volume One is the main plan, and that’s what will be accessible to the public. Volume Two is the prioritized and sequential list of programmes and projects that will be fed into the annual budgets.
“While volume three has the legislative imperatives. What Volume Three really seeks to cover are those laws or policies that impede the private sector from being the main driver of the economy. And so, laws have been identified that need to be reviewed or changed. Policies have also been identified that need to be worked upon. So, Volume Two and Volume Three are not for the public. They are essentially for the government to see what they need to do.
“Another difference between this plan and the previous plan is the issue of Integrated Rural Development. This plan takes rural development away from agriculture. It looks at how to bring in different levels of infrastructure to the rural areas with a view to discouraging rural-urban migration and ensuring that broadband technology gets to the rural areas, and that power supply, even if it’s an upgrade, it’s within the rural areas. And we begin to open up our rural areas,” Agba explained.
PIAK
