Lois Otse Adams
The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba has charged accountants to support the government’s reforms and initiatives to bolster transparency and accountability in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of public policies and projects.
He gave the charge at the 27th annual conference of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) held in Abuja on Tuesday with the themes: “Overcoming Challenges to Africa’s Development: Agenda 2063 in Perspective” and “Economic Diversification and Informal Sector Growth”.
The Minister, who said that the themes of the conference were in line with the federal government’s efforts to reposition the nation’s economy, following the aspiration to restore the culture of development planning in Nigeria, tasked Nigerian accountants to take the front seat at efforts to promote probity and accountability in public policy conceptualizations, formulation and implementation.
He said that since its inception, the current administration has consistently formulated national development plans and strategies to stimulate sustainable development and inclusive economic growth that have begun to produce the desired results characterized by the transition from dependence on one or a few commodities such as crude oil, minerals, and agricultural produce. Adding that achieving economic diversification is a policy challenge in many developing countries, especially in Africa, and is associated with the process of structural transformation, which will ultimately unlock prosperity for all our people.
He disclosed that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic activities and the downturn in global demand for crude oil, amid an oil glut, significantly impacted negatively on the global economy, including Nigeria, noting that the pandemic affected all sectors of the economy, including production, services, exports, supply chain, stock of foreign reserves and foreign investment inflows, and contributed to Nigeria’s second recession within four years. That it has necessitated a National Development Plan 2021-2025, which he said is in alignment with all the regional agendas, including the AU Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030.
Having said that the vision of the plan was to make Nigeria a country that has unlocked its potential in all sectors of the economy for sustainable, holistic and inclusive national development, he emphasized on the associated broad objectives of the plan to establish a strong foundation for a concentric diversified economy, with robust MSME growth, and a more-resilient business environment; to invest in critical physical, financial, digital, and innovation infrastructure; to build a solid framework and to enhance capacities to strengthen security and ensure good governance, among others.
Agba maintained that the National Development Plan 2021-2025 had strategies to create the needed enabling environment for sustainable economic growth and development in Nigeria that the Plan, which was built on the experiences of the lessons learnt in the implementation of previous plans, is unique in many respects; the 36 states of the federation were each represented by two officers who served in the Technical Working Groups, Governors Forum represented at the Central Working Group and 6 Governors from the 6 geo-political zones representing Governors in the National Steering Committee.
He stressed that the plan aims to generate 21 million full-time jobs and lift 35 million people out of poverty by 2025; thus, setting the stage for achieving the government’s commitment of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years, to address binding domestic growth constraints, improve implementation majorly affected by political and policy changes, strengthen links between the Plan and the Annual Budgets, improve inter-sectoral collaboration, ensure harmonized efforts with states and create the enabling environment for increased private sector investment.
“The Plan will equally ensure concentric economic diversification, stimulate the manufacturing sector’s ability to increase the value chain and create jobs, increase product complexity and competitiveness, encourage massive investment in infrastructure and human capital development and adopt a pragmatic approach to fiscal management,” Agba said.
He passionately promised that the country would achieve these laudable goals by leveraging different sectors to unleash Nigeria’s potential for industrialization and sustainable economic growth and development, saying the implementation strategies focused on participation and effective Monitoring and Evaluation.
