FG to adopt four steps in ERGP implementation – Minister

LEADING international publisher of economic reviews on national economies, The Business Year (TBY), recently in Abuja interviewed Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, Hon. Minister of Budget and National Planning.

TBY and the Minister discussed the Implementation Plan (IP) of the much-awaited Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), launched by President Buhari in early 2017. The Minister explained how there are four steps to the implementation of the program.

The first is accountability: each Ministry will be responsible and accountable for each key activity enunciated in the plan.

Secondly, a thorough planning process will be implemented. “We set broad targets which are going to be further developed into more detailed targets.”

The third step is the mobilization of resources to support these targets, which will be allocated directly from the Ministry of Budget and National Planning.

Lastly, the IP will involve monitoring and evaluation. “We have set up a delivery unit, both in this Ministry and in the Presidency, to monitor, evaluate, as well as drive the process. Somebody has to monitor what is being done, report on that, and drive and support those working.”

During the interview with TBY, Minister Udoma also discussed the methods by which, in an era of lower commodity prices, the Federal Government (FG) is planning to increase its revenue as well as to identify alternative revenue streams.

Firstly, the FG plans to maximize its revenues from oil and gas. Secondly, the FG is looking at non-oil revenues, in particular the ones generated by the various government agencies. He explained: “What we are doing is insisting that [the government agencies] provide budgets to us, on time, which we scrutinize, and we try to go through the projects and reduce some of the waste.”

Another alternative stream of revenue that the FG is trying to further develop is revenue collection with customs, as well as companies’ income tax and VAT, through the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

Lastly, the FG is determined to grow sectors such as agriculture, solid minerals, and manufacturing that can create non-hydrocarbon-based revenues. Minister Udoma said: “One of the ways we are doing this is by increasing our expenditure on infrastructure, railways and roads, and power, so that we can increase the level of activities in agriculture, manufacturing, solid minerals, entertainment, and services.”