Federal Government is targeting to mobilise at least $25 billion or its equivalent in Naira in private investments, Senator Udo Udoma, the Minister of Budget and National Planning has said.
Speaking at the launch of the Focus Labs for the nation’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, ERGP, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Tuesday, Udoma further stated about 240 projects have so far been screened for the labs.
Udoma noted “My answer is that we have no choice. We actually need multiplies of $25 billion or its equivalent in Naira, of new investments to create enough jobs to address the high unemployment rate in the country.
“So, we will not stop after the first set of labs, we will hold more labs and we shall keep on addressing all constraints to investments, until we achieve the goals we have set for ourselves.”
President Muhammadu Buhari said that his administration was working hard to attain the target of moving Nigeria up in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings by 2020.
Buhari, who also spoke at the occasion, said the government was planning to build upon the success of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative to double the 500,000 metric tons of fertilizer delivered to states, agro-dealers and farmers in 2017 by achieving production output of one million metric tons in 2018.
According to him, the key goals in the ERGP are on achieving sustainable, diversified and inclusive growth, becoming self-sufficient in basic commodities to curtail our food imports, diversifying the nation’s economic base from crude oil dependence, empowering local businesses to create thousands of jobs and improving the general well being of the people.
He said: “Focus Labs have been successfully used in other countries. The Labs in Nigeria are designed as closed-door investment platforms to identify and accelerate high-impact projects with significant impact on GDP and job creation.
“In the past ten months, we have achieved several noteworthy milestones. As you are aware, economic growth returned in second quarter of 2017 due to a clear follow-through of some of the economic initiatives we set out to implement. Since then, we have consolidated on the recovery path reaching a Real GDP growth of 1.92 per cent by the fourth quarter of 2017.
“We have also restored stability in foreign exchange market and have recorded improvements in our foreign reserves which have grown from 24 billion US dollars in September 2016 to 42 billion US dollars by mid-February 2018 and now 46 billion US dollars. This has been achieved partially because of the recovery of oil prices on the international market.
“We have made remarkable strides in creating conducive business environment for investors, earning the World Bank’s ranking as one of the Top 10 most improved economies in 2017. This has encouraged both local and foreign investments in the last few months.
“We remain committed to working hard to attain our target of moving up in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings by 2020.
“We are also investing billions of naira in fixing infrastructures across the country. Significant progress has also been made in the Agricultural sector with the expansion of the Anchor Borrower’s program to more beneficiaries to boost our local production.
“We plan to build upon the success of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative to double the 500,000 metric tons of fertilizer delivered to States, agro-dealers and farmers in 2017, by achieving production output of 1 million metric tons in 2018.
“Today, our local food production, particularly rice, has witnessed a remarkable growth and has saved the nation millions of dollars of foreign exchange.”
He, however, stated that the government was not relenting on its efforts until the improvements in economic indices translated to visible improvements in the lives of the citizens.
