The Minister of State Budget and National Planning, Prince Clement Agba, has charged state commissioners of budget and economic planning to devise alternative ways of revenue generation to ensure sustainable development of the nation’s economy.
The Minister gave this charge at the Forum of Commissioners of Budget and Economic Planning, Community of Practice (CoP) meeting which held in Abuja.
Specifically, he urged the sub-national economic planning chiefs to re prioritize states’ needs and address the core areas to ensure effective and efficient usage of the revenue, as against the current regime in which, he said, governments were not putting sufficient money in the right sectors of our economy.
The minister charged the commissioners to come up with strategies on how best Nigeria can properly align the key variables of the quality of our infrastructure, policies and institutions to ensure sustainable economic diversification as the nation commences discussions on the formation of a new long term National Development plan.
Agba also decried the nation’s continuous dependence on oil as its major source of revenue, saying that “due to current environmental global uncertainties and volatility, it has become imperative that we do not continue to hold onto the erroneous belief that oil will continue to provide endless source of revenue for the nation”
He therefor called for support from states and strategic stakeholders on the Federal Governments efforts to find alternative ways diversifying and growing the economy, pointing out that the successor plan of the ERGP will be underpinned on these themes.
Earlier in his opening remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Budget and National Planning , Ernest Umakhihe, commended UK’s DFID-PERL for their support towards the accomplishments of previous CoP meetings.
He expressed optimism that the meeting would provide a platform that will allow for further discussions on the Action Plan for the implementation of the previous Joint Planning Board/ National Council on Development Planning Resolutions,(2018/2019); Presentation on Economic Diversification and Nigerian Fiscal Sustainability: Option for States and Topical issues.
