President Buhari launches Nigeria’s Economic Recovery & Growth Plan

 
IN his efforts to revitalising Nigeria economy, President Muhammadu Buhari today launched Nigeria’s Economic Recovery & Growth Plan (ERGP) which will run between 2017 and 2020.
Speaking at the launching, President Muhammadu Buhari said “the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan brings together all our sectoral plans for agriculture and food security, energy and transport infrastructure, industrialization 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 percent growth rate by 2020.”
President Buhari said, the contents of the Plan are already familiar to a broad cross-section of Nigerians because it was developed in consultation with a wide group of stakeholders, including the National Assembly, State Governments, the business community, labour unions, academia, civil society groups and development partners.
According to the President, our political campaign was based on a recognition of the difficult situation Nigeria was in and the need to bring positive and enduring change, saying his administration remain committed to the electoral promise to change the way of doing things and to change Nigeria for good.
“We are committed to delivering on the three key areas that we promised-That is improving security, tackling corruption and revitalising the economy. Security in the North East, and other parts of Nigeria, is significantly better today than when we came in. With regards to our fight against corruption, as you all know, our law enforcement agencies are prosecuting very many cases of corruption. Our successes in these two areas are clear for all to see.”
Mr. President said his aim is to optimise local content and empower local businesses.
We seek not just to take the Nigerian economy out of recession but to place it on a path of sustained, inclusive and diversified growth, he said.
He further that the current regime determined to change Nigeria from an import dependent country to a producing nation, saying Nigeria must become: A nation where “we grow what we eat and consume what we produce.”
“The Plan I am launching today therefore sets out what we, as Government, are committed to do, to create the enabling environment for business to thrive.The Plan is a national plan, hence the role of State Governments is critical to its success. I therefore wish to appeal to the State Governments to draw inspiration and strategic direction from the Plan to articulate their economic programmes, particularly in the development of the real sector.”
The President commended the efforts of the Economic Management Team under the leadership of the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo for overseeing the drafting of the Plan.