Minister urges Nigerians to support ERGP

THE Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen Udoma Udo Udoma has urged Nigerians to support the Federal Government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) to enable it succeed.

Udoma made the call while receiving delegates of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), led by Mr Asipita Umar, the Course Leader, Policy Strategy and Leadership on Thursday in Abuja.

According to the minister, a lot of work still needs to be done to convert the ERGP into action and the support of NIPSS and every Nigerian will go a long way at ensuring this.

“Your support and your input is very important for the success of this plan. The input of every Nigerian is important, we want this plan to be owned and internalised by every single Nigerian.

“It is only when we operate it collectively, when we all accept it well within its confines, when we are propelled by the desire to make this plan work that it will work.

“We believe that when we work together, we will succeed.

“As a government, we will show the way. As a government we will give the leadership but the success depends on all of us working collectively,’’ Udoma said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the ERGP was inaugurated by the president to help stimulate production, stimulate domestic and foreign trade and strengthen key sectors of the economy.

On the ERGP, the minister explained that an extensive consultation was carried out before the plan was put in place to ensure that things improved in the country.

“The plan was built since the inception of this administration, it was not made in one day, we brought together various plans in one document for ease of access.’’

According to him, the implementation of the plan also started from the inception of the plan as it is a continuous process.

“We are producing a further detailed implementation roadmap that sets out the strategy broken into component activities and actions with each action supported by clearly assigned responsibilities.

“We are also setting up a delivery unit in the presidency and beefing capacity in this unit and we also have a special tax force.

“This tax force has been working on the production of rice, power sector and solid minerals and that is why we have seen improvements in some of these areas.’’

Udoma said the government was mandated to ensure an inclusive growth and that was why government was embarking on social intervention programmes “to bring our people out of poverty’’.

“We want to harvest the ideas of Nigerians and use them to transform our economy.’’

Udoma urged Nigerians to ensure that in all their endeavours, they think of ways of adding value to the country so as to help transform the country’s economy.

“We must go back and add value. If every Nigerian should think of that, the economy will be entirely transformed; we will become the leading economy that is the engine of Africa.’’

The minister commended the management of NIPSS for supporting government’s programmes and policies and urged them to continue in their efforts.

“I am always impressed by the work of the institute. It is easily one of the foremost think-tanks that looks at current issues and in order to come up with actionable ideas.

“The reason why it is well placed is that it consists of practitioners, people working in government and in the private sector, so it is not an academic exercise.

“People who are experienced should bring their experience to bear, spend time away from their day to day affairs to reflect on the issues and problems of the country.

“I commend the institute for all the work they are doing.’’

Earlier, Mr Asipita Umar, the Course Leader, NIPSS pledged the institute’s desire to key into the success of the government’s ERGP.

Umar said the NIPSS team visited the minister to learn more about the ERGP and understand its implementation methods.

He said NIPSS ran a course on Policy Strategy and Leadership which was designed to equip the participants with basic knowledge of policies and its strategies.

“The course helps them to be able to make meaningful contributions to policy incubation and advice on matters of policy development.

“The objective is to help the system develop a crop of middle level executive that are in-depth in policy and strategic matters to prepare them for leadership roles.