Senate to probe FG’s Economic Recovery Plan

THE Senate has mandated six of its committees to engage the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, on the Federal Government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) between 2017 and 2020.

The committees are – National Planning; Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions; Marine Transport; Land Transport; Works and Power.

The decision to engage the minister, according to a statement issued yesterday by the Special Assistant (Press) to the Senate President, Ezrel Tabiowo, was reached after the upper legislative chamber considered a motion “on the need to critically assess the performance of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020.

The motion was sponsored by Senator Abdu Suleiman Kwari who in his presentation, said the four-year ERGP which was the source document of Nigeria’s four years Appropriations Act, had elapsed.

He recalled that President Buhari launched the Plan in April of 2017 to ensure the actualisation of a sustainable inclusive growth of the nation’s economy.

Kwari said: “The Plan was targeted at achieving a structural economic transformation with emphasis on improving the efficiency of both the public and private sectors of the Nigerian economy.

“Further aware that the key objectives of the plan were to increase our national productivity, achieve a sustainable diversification of production, significantly grow our economy by 7 percent by the year 2020, maximize the welfare of our citizens and attain food and energy security.

“Worried that the four-year plan, which has now elapsed, cannot be said to have met our desired socio-economic aspiration;

“Believes that there is need for stock taking to critically assess the performance of the ERGP in order to ascertain whether the Plan has met the desired goals now that it has technically come to an end.

“Further believes that in taking stock, it is imperative to benchmark the implementation outcomes of the Plan in terms of the following indices to determine: real growth in the agricultural, solid minerals, and energy sectors of the economy; SMEs growth as laid out in the plan; and positive impact on our industries and manufacturing sectors.”