Development Plan: Government’s funding should be more – Economist

Mr Tope Fasua, an economist has urged governments at all levels to contribute to and increase its projected funding of N49.7 trillion target in the National Development Plan (NDP 2021-2025).

Fasua said this on Sunday while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

The NDP is a medium-term economic plan, unveiled in Dec. 2021, it succeeds the Vision 20:2020 introduced in 2009 and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) introduced in 2017.

It would also serve as the basis for Nigeria Agenda 2050, the country’s long-term plan currently being developed.

It has a funding target of N348.1 trillion with the three tiers of government accounting for N49.7 trillion and private sector contribution put at N298.3 trillion.

According to Fasua, NDP is an amalgamation of the public and private sector contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the public sector funding towards its achievement should be more.

He said that for a five-year plan, the public sector contribution which was put at N49.7 trillion was insufficient.

“The government budgets on a yearly basis is right now about N16 trillion.

“So I would have thought that the government contribution should be higher than that perhaps maybe the state government contribution as well.

“This is because GDP is the goods and services produced in a given country in a given year, including salaries paid to public sector workers for delivering services to the public.

“If you look at it that way, perhaps the contribution of the Federal Government to the plan should be N100 trillion.

“When you add that of state governments that amount should be a lot larger than the N380 trillion on the whole that we have.”

Fasua said that the plan was a welcome development, but that it should be properly implemented to achieve the desired results.

He added that the plan was different from previous economic plans and roadmaps because it had the contribution of the private sector.

He, however, said that the plan did not properly capture what the private sector could bring to the table, which may also affect the plan’s achievements.

“Yes, I think that the plans are achievable. I think that even more that they are a bit understated, like I said, so we should think about it properly.”

The economist said that there was a huge space and opportunities for growth as everywhere in Nigeria something needs to be done better.

According to him, some things need to be created, manufactured, affected, and innovated which would drive growth.

NAN reports that the NDP is expected to generate 21 million full-time jobs and lift 35 million people out of poverty by 2025.

It also has a vision “to make Nigeria a country that has unlocked its potential in all sectors of the economy for a sustainable, holistic and inclusive national development”.

Its broad objectives are economic diversification, investment in infrastructure, security, and good governance, to have an educated and healthy population, poverty alleviation, and economic and social development across states.

The plan is structured around economic growth and development, infrastructure, public administration, human capital development, social development, regional development, and plan implementation.