Buhari to launch economic recovery plan next month

Barring any last minute change in plans, President Muhammadu Buhari will next month launch the National Economic Reconstruction and Growth Plan that will guide the Federal Government in repositioning the economy for sustainable growth.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja while speaking at a national economic retreat.

The retreat, according to him, was intended to provide an opportunity for stakeholders from the various sectors of the economy to consult and exchange views on the medium term economic plan for Nigeria.

The minister said the economic recovery plan would be a detailed document that would bring together various plans that had been put together by the government’s Economic Management Team.

The documents are the Strategic Implementation Plan from which the Medium Term Expenditure and Fiscal Strategy Paper was developed, and the Medium Term Sector Strategies.

Udoma said as soon as the consultations with stakeholders in the private sector was concluded, the EMT would be getting inputs from the National Assembly and other development partners before the launch of the final document by the President in December.

He said, “The whole of the economic team has been working very hard since we released the SIP. On the basis of the SIP, we developed the MTEF. We also developed the MTSS for large spending ministries. Our intention now is to bring all these works together as part of a comprehensive medium term plan. As President Buhari has promised, this last stage will involve extensive consultations.

“It is one of a number of consultations we will have before we launch the plan. We shall hold consultations with the states, our development partners and the National Assembly. These consultations will be concluded within the next one month, because as promised by the President, this medium term plan will be launched before the end of this year.”

Udoma said the ministry had developed sectoral plans in five thematic areas as part of the economic recovery plan.

They include macroeconomic stability, where the focus will be on the fiscal and monetary condition, low inflation, stable exchange rate and strong economic growth; and economic diversification and building competitiveness in the private sector.

Others are job creation and social inclusion; and governance issues such as security and human capital development.

“We are emphasising jobs and social inclusion because of the need for direct interventions to create jobs, while tackling poverty and inequality,” the minister added.