The Federal government on Wednesday unveiled its economic recovery programme for a three-year period (2017- 2010), aimed at reviving the Nigerian economy and putting it back on the path of growth. Tagged Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, (ERGP), the programme was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The plan, which is the brainchild of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, contains 60 critical initiatives designed to help get Nigeria out of recession and reposition it on the path of sustained growth. It also focuses on five execution priorities, which are central to achieving the 7 per cent growth projected by the end of the period. The priority areas include Stabilising the Macroeconomic Environment; Achievement of Agriculture and Food Security; Expansion of Energy Infrastructure capacities (power and petroleum); Improving Transportation Infrastructure and Driving Industrialisation principally through local and small business enterprises.
Speaking at the launch, President Buhari reemphasised the importance of the plan and the interconnectedness between the different sectors that are central to the success of the programme. According to him, “the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan brings together all our sectoral plans for agriculture and food security, energy and transport infrastructure, industrialisation and social investments together in a single document. It builds on the Strategic Implementation Plan and sets out an ambitious roadmap to return the economy to growth; and to achieve a 7 per cent growth rate by 2020”.
A critical look at the ERGP shows that it is designed to make Nigeria a producing rather than a consuming nation. This is one of the most important aspects of the plan because it seeks to create wealth and food security through deep involvement in agriculture. Apart from using agriculture to ensure food security, it also strives to create wealth through channeling the agricultural output to boost industrialisation. This will invariably create employment for the teeming Nigerian youths.
The success of this plan is also dependent on the availability of critical infrastructure like energy and transport and we are delighted that the FG fully recognised this and included the provision of these infrastructure in the plan. It is doubtful if any meaningful growth can take place in an economy that is bereft of critical infrastructure like steady power supply and good transportation network.
We commend the efforts of the federal government in rolling out the ERGP that is designed to take Nigeria out of the woods. It shows that the government is aware of the harsh realities which millions of Nigerians are going through every day and also willing to bring to an end the anguish.
Nigeria has never been in short supply of fine ideas. The major challenge before us as people is the will to implement and sustain the beautiful plans we have. This is not the first time such fantastic programmes have been launched. We urge the government to ensure that the plan is implemented to the letter. Gratefully, the president said that the government will pursue the plan with the same zeal with which it has pursued the anti-corruption war.
The ERGP is a lofty idea but we doubt if such a robust plan can make any meaningful impact within a three-year period considering the rot in infrastructure that will make the plan realisable. We are not convinced that the entire infrastructure that will be required for the ERGP to work would be provided within the three-year plan period. Given the rate at which we have progressed, it is doubtful if steady power supply required to drive industrialisation and agriculture can be made available within the plan time frame.
Government should also ensure that the provision of critical infrastructure, especially, transportation is evenly spread to reflect the federal composition of the country. It would be against the principles of economic and social justice for the government to concentrate the provision of critical infrastructure in one region without economic reasoning and expect the plan to succeed.
Nigerians must not lose sight of the fact that two of the three-year plan period will be devoted to elections and campaigns to return the party to power. It is therefore unnecessary for anybody to pretend that much would be achieved within the campaign and election period. While we commend the initiative, we urge the government to go back to the drawing board and redesign the plan period so that it would run for an appreciable time for it to have meaningful impact on the economy.