The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, says the Medium-term National Development Plans (MTNDP) 2021-2025 will be launched by President Muhammadu Buhari in December this year.
He said this at a zoom news conference in Abuja to update stakeholders on the development plans which are currently being drafted.
The Minister who noted that the job was being fast-tracked to ensure that annual budgets, particularly the 2021 appropriation is derived from the medium term plans said the second MTNDP (2026 – 2030) report will be due in February 2021, while the final development blueprint for the Nigeria Agenda 2050 will be ready in July next year.
He said the development plan will be used in preparing the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for the preparation of the 2021 budget, which was approved by the National Assembly, the fundamentals of the macroeconomic framework for the medium term plan 2021 – 2025 that were brought in focus.
The Minister explained that the macroeconomic indices used for the development of the Economic Sustainability Plan of N2.3 trillion stimulus package to hedge the economy from sliding into deep and prolonged recession due to the impact of COVID-19 had been integrated into the MTNDP noting that the steps were all taken to ensure that annual budgets are derived from national development plans to foster the planned discipline in successive year.
Mr. Agba said the APC Government is not partisan but committed to producing truly National Development Plans and not just Federal Government Plans, pointing out that six state governors, one from each of the six geopolitical zones and representatives of major political parties are involved at the steering committee level for the development of the plans.
He noted that at the moment, efforts are ongoing to also engage the grassroots through the states and the local government in the planning process which shall take place through town hall meetings where memoranda from town development associations and traditional rulers shall be received to deepen engagement, participation and ownership.
“In addition, we are looking forward to developing an inclusive and participatory national plan that is sufficiently comprehensive with the capacity to accelerate the attainment of various regional and global agendas, including the AU Agenda 2063, ECOWAS integration Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals 2030″ he said.
