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THE Federal Executive Council, FEC, yesterday, approved the 2011-2025 National Development Plan, NDP, which takes over the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, ERGP.
The new plan has an investment size of N348.7 trillion to be contributed by the federal and state governments as well as the private sector.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondent at the end of the council meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Mrs. Ahmed explained that the plan was structured on economic growth and development, infrastructure, public administration, human capital, social and regional development.
She said for the investment size, the public sector would contribute N49.7 trillion, while the private sector would chip in N298.3 trillion.
The minister explained that the funding strategy would include broadening the tax base and expanding the capacity of the private sector through creating investment opportunities and delivering quality engagements and incentives.
She said: “Today (yesterday), the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning presented a memorandum to council, requesting for approval of National Development Plan for 2021-2025, which is a plan that is succeeding the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, ERGP, which will expire in December 2021.
“This national development plan we call NDP for short, is structured around six concepts and these concepts include economic growth and development, infrastructure, public administration, human capital development, social development and regional development.
“This also says that the part, by a micro economy framework, which projects an average Gross Domestic Product, GDP, growth of five per cent over the……. and also, the plan has been costed to have an investment size of N348.7 trillion over a five-year period.
“This investment size is to be contributed by the public sector at N49.7 trillion, representing 14.3% and the private sector at N298.3 trillion, representing 85.7%.
“Also, the public sector expenditure component of the N49.7 trillion will be contributed by the federal government as well as states.
“The federal government expenditure component is N29.6 trillion, representing 8.5% of the total expenditure size, while the state governments will contribute N20.1 trillion, representing 5.8%.
“The funding strategy for the plan has also been identified and this include broadening the tax base and expanding the capacity of the private sector through creating investment opportunities and delivering quality engagements and incentives.
“Also exploring domestic and concession financing sources and setting up financial investments vehicles and public private partnership as well as the Nigerian investment and…
“The plan requires the establishment of a strong implementation mechanism and framework that promotes performance and accountability which is necessary for the implementation of the plan.
“There will also be a development plan implementation unit that will report to the national steering committee that will be headed by Vice President, with the ministers of finance, budget and national planning as vice chair.
“Implementation of the plan will be in the planning arm of the ministry to ensure that ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, state governments and private sector organizations are all working in a coordinated fashion.
“The plan also has a specific concentration to deliver within the five year period and immediately we get this plan launched, we will continue to work on Nigeria Agenda 2050. And this is to make sure we don’t have crisis going forward.”
Also briefing, the Minister of State for National Planning, Clement Agba, said in coming up with the NDP, government took into consideration the criticisms that trailed the NDP, including the fact that it was not inclusive enough.
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He said: “In going into this plan, we took a look at the previous plan, that is ERGP, with a view to seeing what the criticisms were; what did we do well? And one of the downsides that we learnt from the ERGP or complaints that came from people was that it wasn’t inclusive enough, it wasn’t participatory enough, and that people saw it as a federal government plan.
“So, deliberately, for this National Development Plan 2021-2025, the issue of no one being left behind was key. We have to make sure it’s national enough. That is to say that it should be prepared by federal, state, local governments, and more importantly, the organised private sector.
“That is why in terms of governance structure that was approved by Mr President, we have two co-chairs. One is from the private sector, Mr Atedo Peterside, and one from the public sector, my sister, Dr Zainab Ahmed.”
On his part, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said FEC approved contracts worth about N1.264 billion for projects in Federal Medical Centre, Katsina and Uthman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto.
He said the council approved the procurement of an oncology and radiotherapy centre for the medical centre to be able to handle cancer cases.
For the university, he said council approved that the linear accelerator and the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine be replaced.
Ehanire said: “FEC today (yesterday) considered three memos from the Ministry of Health, and all of them were in respect of procurements. First was the memo from the Federal Medical Centre, Katsina for an oncology and radiotherapy center, to be able to handle cancer cases.
“The project sum is N1,023,500,668.86, to be completed in 42 weeks by a Nigerian company. The second memo was for reequipping Usman Danfodio University which is one of our centres of excellence for managing cancer also.
“The equipment is old and broken down. The most important one, which is linear accelerator, which is going to be replaced, and the Magnetic Resonance Imaging, MRI, machine that will also be replaced.
“The MRI at the cost of N440,484,984.32 to replace the old, dis-functional one and a linear accelerator at N887,690,000 from special intervention fund. The MRI is from budget appropriation.”
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