Nigeria’s Mid-Term Development Plan (2021-25)

Non-Aligned Movement has reaffirmed its commitment to the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and has called upon the Member States to devise policies so as to achieve them in an integrated and indivisible manner and also align them to counter the challenges caused due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nigeria, a Member State of NAM has taken such an initiative with the launch of the country’s Mid-Term Development Plan (2021-25).

As a result of the global pandemic, Nigeria has intensified efforts to provide a future of hope and prosperity for its citizens, with firm commitment to the realization of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, through the implementation of the Medium-Term National Development Plans (MTNDP). The Administration has identified nine Government Priorities for implementation during the period 2019-2023. Therefore, they have been captured in the priorities of the Medium-term Plan. These are: 1) Build a thriving and sustainable economy; 2) Enlarge agriculture output for food security; 3) Attain energy sufficiency in power and petroleum products; 4) Expand transport and other infrastructure development; 5) Expand business growth, Entrepreneurship and industrialisation; 6) Improve access to quality education, affordable healthcare and productivity; 7) Enhance social inclusion and reduce poverty; 8) Build systems to fight corruption, improve governance and create national cohesion; and 9) Improve security for all.
The following broad macroeconomic goals during the implementation of MTNDP have been identified: 1) Contain the economic and health impact of the pandemic through fiscal and monetary policies in a transparent and efficient manner; 2) Sustain the economic recovery and put the economy on a path of increasing per capita income to avert the past trend of higher population compared to the real GDP growth; 3) Macroeconomic stability, anchored on coordinated fiscal and monetary policies, to achieve a declining path of inflation, a foreign exchange regime that allows for managed flexibility and consistency with macro-structural fundamentals; 4) Broad-based economic growth of about 3.8 percent on average; with non-oil GDP growth of 4 percent and oil GDP growth of 2.1 percent; 5) A more competitive non-oil sector; and a more robust and resilient economy that is less dependent on the oil sector; 6) Increased employment generation- projected increase of about 25 million, with 10 million from direct growth impact and 15million from skill-acquisition other interventions; 7) The projected real GDP growth during 2021-25 would be sufficient to ensure that about 10 million people do not fall into poverty; and 8) Additional number of people 25 million will be taken out of poverty, ensuring that poverty rate reach 31 percent by 2025 compared to 40 percent in 2020.

The MTNPD identifies the following key strategies for achieving the goals:
1) Continuing with prudent fiscal management with enhanced focus on mobilization of non-oil revenues to engender increased spending on social-protection initiatives and reduce the dependency of the budget on domestic and external financing to improve debt-servicing capacity. In view of the economic fallout from the pandemic, a sustained economic recovery would be a major requirement for considering additional revenue-enhancing measures; 2) Finetuning monetary policy framework, with emphasis on price stability, support to the economy as appropriate, harmonization of the exchange rates and ensuring that the eventual unified exchange rate is well aligned with macro-structural fundamentals; 3) Further accelerating the pace of economic diversification, where all the sectors of the economy become more competitive and begin to meet domestic and regional demands for goods and services and eventually compete more effectively in the global market; 4) Reducing the costs of production for the manufacturing sector through improved business environment, avoidance of multiple taxation and increased and more reliable provision of infrastructure 5) Enhancing the performance of the manufacturing sector and strengthening its linkages to other sectors particularly agriculture and service sectors to bring about increased employment intensity of growth as well as the sensitivity of poverty reduction to growth; and 6) Deepening the financial sector and sustaining its stability to ensure increased credit allocation to MSMEs. The goal is that by 2025, Nigeria has laid the foundation for a strong institutional structure and systems driving efficient implementation of at least 60% of the targets in the MTNDP. This will ensure economic revitalisation and diversification as well as foster an all-inclusive prosperity for Nigerians. The Nigerian Policy makers believe that the successful implementation of this initiative will deliver sustainable economic growth and development, and enhance the socio-economic status of the people.

Photo Credit : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagos#/media/File:2014_Tinubu_Square_Lagos_Nigeria_14640600637.jpg