Nigeria 2050 agenda is roadmap for poverty reduction, economic stability, says Clem Agba

Clement Agba, the former minister of state for budget and national planning, says the Nigeria agenda 2050 is aimed at “fully engaging all resources to reduce poverty and achieve social and economic stability in the country.

The former minister spoke on Thursday while delivering a paper titled  “Strategic thinking for progressive governance in the 21st century” at the 22nd meeting of the National Council on Development Planning (NCDP) held in Osogbo, Osun state. 

Agba said the Nigeria agenda 2050  was designed to transform the country into an “upper-middle income country” with a significant improvement in per capita income.

He said the plan had already identified and clarified where Nigeria would be in 30 years’ time and how to get there.

He added that the agenda also aims at developing a mechanism for achieving a sustainable environment consistent with global concerns about climate change

“The plan therefore presents the road map for accelerated, sustained and broad-based growth as well as provides broad frameworks for reducing unemployment, poverty, inequality, and human deprivation,” Agba said. 

Agba, who supervised the development of the national development plan (NDP) 2021-2025 and Nigeria agenda 2050 while he was the minister of state for budget and national planning, said that the path to that goal would pass through six medium-term NDPs, namely NDP (2021-2025) (already developed and published) and subsequent national development plans covering (2026-2030), (2031-2035), (2036-2040), (2041-2045), and (2046-2050).

“The first of the medium-term plans, named NDP 2021-2025, is to make Nigeria a country that has unlocked its potential in all sectors of the economy for a sustainable, holistic, and inclusive development.

“Specifically, 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 achieve these, we need to address binding domestic growth constraints by creating the needed enabling environment for sustainable economic growth and development to allow the private sector to drive the economy.

“The strategy to create the needed enabling environment for sustainable economic growth and development is contained in Volume III, which is the legal and legislative imperatives.

“This volume includes 18 laws that need to be passed or amended and 10 policies for effective implementation of the NDP, 2021-2025.”

Agba said there is an urgent need to resubmit and ensure the passage of the development planning and project continuity bill’ which had been in the national assembly undergoing the legislative process for enactment.

He said this would improve plan implementation majorly affected by political and policy changes.