By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, announced that the Federal Government is set to unlock all potential sectors of the economy to push the nation’s per capita income to $33.000 and to bring about a national development.
Prince Agba made this known on Wednesday in Abuja at a press briefing of 28th National Economic Summit ,NE#28, holding from the 14th-15th of November 2022, with the theme “2023 and Beyond: Priorities for Shared Prosperity”.
According to the minister, the NES#28 is to discuss priorities for post 2023 with emphasis on the policies and strategies captured in the National Development Plan (NDP) 2021-2025 and Nigeria Agenda, NA, 2050.
He explained that the NA 2050 was designed to transform the country with a Per Capita Income of $33,000 while the NDP 2021-2025 was designed with the vision to unlock the country’s potential in all sectors of the economy for a sustainable and inclusive national development.
Agba said, “The plan is meant to drastically bring poverty rate to 0.6% and unemployment rate to 6.3%, while transforming the economy to the highest per capita GDP in the group of Upper-middle Income Economies.”
He added that NA 2050 would be implemented through a series of six number 5-year Medium Term Plans and Annual Budgets.
Furthermore, the minister disclosed that the government would involve the private sector in achieving these plans to ensure a sustainable and inclusive national development.
He said, “The private sector will be the engine of growth of the economy, while the government will implement policies and regulations that promote favorable business environment to achieve high rate of investment and savings.”
“The investment is necessary to raise the economy to a GDP of $11.7 trillion by 2050 while structural barriers that constrain the vulnerable segment of the society from realizing its potential are addressed.”
The Minister disclosed that the summit would focus on Delivering Macroeconomic Stability for Shared Prosperity, investing in the Nigeria future, Unlocking the Binding Constraints to Education and Reframing the Agenda for Transformational Leadership.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, NESG, Mr Asue Ighodalo, in his remarks, noted that the nation was in a season of social discontent characterized by massive economic pressures and challenges on businesses and the citizens.
Ighodalo lamented that macroeconomic instability is pushing more people below the poverty line, as the World Bank estimated 7 million Nigerians in extreme poverty by this year, 2022, alone.
“These socioeconomic pressures are accentuated by rising food inflation and a growing food insecure population that the World Food Programme puts at 61 Million as of October 2022.”
“This situation has over 38% of our under-5 children experiencing chronic malnutrition and 70% of our children suffering from Learning Poverty (lacking basic literacy and numeracy skills)” he explained.
He, however, expressed hope that in five years’ time, Nigeria could become a leading industrializing and reforming nation in Africa that “focuses on building its State capacity and capabilities in five years’ time.
