National Development Plan: FG seeks N348.1trn to create 21m jobs in 5 years
…To lift 35m out of poverty
Abimbola Abatta and Uthman Salami
The Federal Government is set to raise N348.1 trillion to create 21 million full-time jobs and lift 35 million Nigerians out of poverty in five years, according to the National Development Plan.
Also, to improve the country’s transportation sector, the Federal Government seeks an estimated public investment of N7.73trillion.
This was contained in the newly introduced Nigeria’s National Development Plan for 2021 to 2025.
The development plan is sequel to the Vision 20:2020 introduced in 2009 and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) introduced in 2017.
Meanwhile, the funding target of N348.1trillion allocates N49.7trillion to the government and N298.3trillion to the private sector.
The NDP is targeted at making Nigeria “a country that has unlocked its potential in all sectors of the economy for a sustainable, holistic, and inclusive national development.”
The plan reads, “To achieve the goals outlined in the transportation sector, the estimated public investment is N7.73trn from 2021- 2025.
“Allocations will be made to priority projects in the sector as well as projects essential to the operations of the relevant MDAs at each level of government.
“Progress is required towards expanding the current stock of transport infrastructure, increasing overall reliability, and ensuring multimodal transport solutions that would enable heightened levels of economic growth and development.”
Volume I of the plan focuses on economic growth and development; infrastructure; public administration; human capital development; social development; as well as regional development and plan implementation.
As part of the efforts to address the key challenges of the transportation sector, which include insufficient funding, an unclear regulatory framework, and a lack of multimodality, the NDP highlights funding options available to the government.
The plan considers generating N100 billion annually via the Sovereign Sukuk Bonds for road infrastructure in five years.
To cover the execution of Lagos – Ibadan Expressway, Abuja – Kaduna – Kano Expressway and the Second Niger Bridge, it also explores the opportunity of accessing funds via the $321 million from the proceeds of the Abacha loot.
According to the document, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in partnership with the NSIA and some private capital funding sources, will put together Infrastructure Company (InfraCo) to raise $40 billion.
The plan also states the possibility of generation an additional $1.5 billion from pension funds, “assuming Nigeria’s pension fund assets valued at over $31.3 billion in 2019 grows at an average rate of 15.0 per cent per annum over the five years.”
