OPS worried over implication of new economic plan

Following the Federal Government’s position to float a new 10-year economic plan as a successor to replace the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (EGRP), members of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) are worried over the economic implication the process will take on taxpayers’ monies to formulate and implement the plan. They are of the view that the former plans are yet to make meaningful impacts on the country’s economy for decades.   

Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, had disclosed that a new economic blueprint for the country was imperative following the winding down of the ERGP this year. Agba, according to a statement from the ministry, said the Federal Government had made tremendous progress in its effort to reposition the economy of the country. However, the minister’s position on the new 10-year economic plan by the Federal Government does not appeal to the private sector operators, who have unanimously stated that government should be blamed for the failure of past plans. Particularly, they said there is no need to rollout new economic plan at this period of economic headwinds, rather, government should identify the bottlenecks that marred the failure of the past ones and make adequate corrections.

Some of the economic plans included the Nigeria Enterprises Promotion, Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) 1986, New Industrial Policy (NIP)1988, Trade And Financial Liberalisation Policy (1989), Nigeria Industrial Policy (NIP), 2003, National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) (2004), National Integrated Industrial Development (NIID) 2007, National Policy on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), 2010, Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP), 2014, and Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) (2017).

The immediate past president of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Babatunde Ruwase, in a telephone call explained that rolling out a new 10-year successor plan to replace ERGP at this moment is like shifting a goal post, saying when government realises the amount of taxpayers’ monies that it will gulp on policy formulation of the new economic plan, it’s better to modify ERGP.