Senators in session
The Joint National Assembly Committee on National Planning and Economic Development has announced plans to organise a national dialogue to reform Nigeria’s budgeting system and intensify efforts toward achieving a one trillion dollar economy.
The Chairman, the House Committee on National Planning and Economic Development, Rep. Gboyega Isiaka (APC-Ogun), stated this while addressing newsmen in Abuja on Monday.
Isiaka said that a two-day dialogue has been scheduled for April 14 and April 15 at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre, Abuja.
The lawmaker said the conference, being organised in collaboration with the Office of the Vice-President, Federal Ministry of Finance, Ministry of National Planning and the Budget Office of the Federation, would focus on aligning Nigeria’s development agenda with its fiscal framework.
He said that the dialogue was designed to bridge the long-standing gaps between national development plans and budget implementation which he described as a major constraint to sustainable economic growth.
According to the lawmaker, the confab would convene critical stakeholders from across government and private sectors as well as policy institutions to chart a more coherent development path for the country.
“The Nigerian development plan has been on for quite a while. We are aware of the various plans, even before Nigeria got its independence in 1960.
“Between the independence and 1985, there were at least four different national plans that Nigeria had.
“These were followed by the various rolling plans like the Structural Adjustment Programme, National Economic and Empowerment, Vision 2020 and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan between 2017 and 2020.
“There was the Perspective Plan, the 50-year development plan which was broken down into various short, mid-term and long-term plan, the first was 2020-2025 that just ended.
“We also aware of the Renewed Hope Development Plan for 2026 to 2030, which is the second of the 50-year development plan and the aspiration of the administration to achieve a one trillion dollar economy.
“There are also the various roles of stakeholders, particularly the private and the public sectors, plus the need to align these goals with the national budgeting system.
“There is so much cry about the envelop system used here and there is much to be done,” he said.
Consequently, Isiaka said various parties had come together to run a two-day national policy dialogue on “imperatives of national planning and economic budgeting system for sustainable economic growth of the Nigerian economy.”
The dialogue, he said, aimed to bring together legislators from national and sub-national levels, policymakers, heads of government agencies, reputable professional bodies in finance, economy, procurement, and budget and planning to look at the various areas of developing a national plan and a budgeting system.
“So we feel that for us be able to achieve this, we need to put this dialogue together,” he said.
