A development strategist, Dr Emeka Okengwu has undertaken a critical assessment of Federal Government’s ongoing economic recovery and sustainability initiative, submitted that the economic program been led by Vice President, Yemi Oshinbajo was well articulated and capable to jump start the economy and bring it out of recession post the COVID – 19 pandemic era.
Okengwu, appearing recently as guest on an online media interactive forum monitored in Lagos observed also that the economic project championed by the President Mohammadu Buhari led administration was different in several respect from similar economic programs in the past considering that it is target based and centered around the global health pandemic.
According to the renowned development strategist, the government program was articulated based on a number of assumptions including basically that, if the economy was left the way it was without injection of capital funds, the country would get between 4.4 to 4.5 negative growth, adding however that with the injection of about $500 billon the negative growth record would reduce to about 1.9 percent.
He further explained that it was in the wisdom of the evaluators of the program, that the nation opted to go for the middle road projection of injecting $ 2.3 billion capital fund into the economy, pointing out however that the beauty of the plan was that, while the larger chunk of the funding stream was made available by the Central Bank the rest of it was supposed to come through other financial sources.
“It’s a good plan. But that is what it is, a plan, a policy, if you may, at best, maybe, what you might be able to call government fiscal strategy paper. What is good about it is that also the funding streams, of course, the 500 billion, 1.1trillin was to come from the central bank and then the rest of it was supposed to come from other financial sources”
“It’s different because this is one plan that is target based. It is one plan that is planned around the COVID pandemic. These other plans were very general. But in this case, you know, government looked at the situation, looked at the global economic situation, and then came out with what you may call a target based plan. It is a very well articulated plan, and also it was well thought through”
On the governments projected ambition to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by year 2030, Okengwu expressed optimism that the government’s target was realizable, but added what needed to be done was for the government to focus on the critical sectors that could make the objective realizable such as agriculture.
But he added that the government needed to expand beyond the targeted scope of agriculture to cover areas of agro allied resources and by so doing be able to accommodate aspects of modern technology and. Infrastructure.
“That way you are bringing in technology. That way you’re bringing in infrastructure. That way you are no longer just talking about agriculture for food sustainability. You are also talking about agriculture for even your medicinal needs, for your infrastructure and for even your housing needs”..
On the 12 month projected time lag of realizing the economic objectives, Okengwu expressed belief that it was too short a time to expect that the program materialize successfully but added that it was imperative that the projected plans should advance beyond the stages of planning to become an action plan.
“Plan is the talk, if u may, and then action and program is the walk. So I think what needs to be seen is how we are going to be walking the talk. But plans have two other legs that are very very important. That is the program and the action. The moment you have a plan, it is from your plan you begin to draw your blue print. It is from your plan that you begin to draw your program and it is from your plan you begin to draw actions”. He added.
