The Federal
Government has said it would explore private sector partnership in a bid to
address the country’s infrastructural challenges, in line with its year 2020
target.
According to
the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, plans are underway to aid the
realisation of an economic target growth rate of seven per cent by 2020
incrementally beginning with a 3.5 per cent growth in 2018, 4.5 per cent in
2019 and 7 per cent in 2020.
The Ministry
called for collaborative efforts to address Nigeria’s infrastructure
challenges, stating that the budget allocated to infrastructure projects in
the country is a far cry required to meet its infrastructure needs.
Preparatory
to the 23rd Nigerian Economic Summit scheduled to hold on October 10th-12th in
Abuja, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma,
in a chat with journalists, said the theme of this year’s summit tagged “Opportunities,
productivity and Employment: Actualizing the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan
(ERGP)” is linked to the implementation of the plan, pointing out that the
implementation of the ERGP is critical to achieving the ambitious goals of the
present administration to diversify the economy and attain a growth rate of 7
per cent by 2020.
“We need to
spend 3 to 5 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on infrastructure
development as federal government spending at 0.5 per cent cannot solve our
infrastructure challenges. We are looking for private sector partnership to
structure projects to attract private sector funding,” he added.
According to
him, the summit will elicit and adopt a solutions-based approach in addressing
issues that will expand opportunities, tackle unemployment and improve
productivity.
“This is in
line with the aspirations of the ERGP which aims at restoring and sustaining
growth, investing in our people and building a globally competitive economy.
This is expected to enhance the effective implementation of the ERGP and also
translate to improvement in living standards of the citizen.
He pointed
out that the summit is structured into five key thematic pillars to identify
proactive steps required towards building local content; focusing on linkages
between economic opportunities, productivity, skills and competencies and the
right policies to deliver in core areas; create and explore the strategic
investment options, frameworks, models and business cases for unlocking type of
capital flows that create opportunities and jobs for Nigerians.
He also
stated that the summit would examine the impact of specific legislation
identified by the National Assembly Business Environment Roundtable (NASSBER)
to create economic opportunities and jobs and target actions and collaborative
efforts required to deepen economic inclusion across Nigeria to unlock
opportunities at the sub-national, deescalate threats to national security and
make the business case for a united Nigeria.
He noted
that the summit will further seek to articulate an action plan with specific
timelines for all stakeholders, especially the private sector and government.
The Minister
said this year’s summit will provide a platform to sharpen the conversation on
how to deepen opportunities on employment as specified in the ERGP.
“The
expected outcomes of the summit will outline the national jobs deficit and risk
profile, provide a national response framework that adequately matches it;
define a reviewed national framework for exploring the economic opportunities
across priority industries, sub-sectors and market value chains; set out a
reviewed framework for entrepreneurship and innovation that seeks to leverage
entrepreneurial development as a key driver of productivity,” he added.
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