Nigeria may not meet Vision 20:2020 target- Minister

The Minister of National Planning and Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Shamsuddeen Usman, said he doubts that Nigeria will be among the top 20 most developed economy by the year 2020. While briefing the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Abuja on the activities of his ministry on Tuesday evening, Mr. Usman said though the country was number 44 when the documentation of Vision 20:2020 commenced, he will be proud if it rises to number 25 by 2020.
“Where were we in 2009? We were number 44. By the end of 2011, we were number 36, this is progress. We made quite a lot of progress. In other areas we are not. I don’t want any of you to meet me in 2020 and say you are the one telling us that we are going to be among the top 20,” the minister said.
“But what I am saying is that even if we are not among the 20 by that time, we were number 44 in 2009. If by 2020 we are number 25, I will be a very proud man. The reason is because we are consciously moving and doing all the necessary things to move up there.
“It’s not saying we must be there. What it’s saying is if we get there then these are the actions we must need to take as a country. We must do this and that in governance, in human development, in infrastructure. That is what the document is saying and we are actually taking those steps and if we are? What progress are we making?”
Mr. Usman blamed the crisis in the power sector on the more than 30 years of military rule in the country.
“During the military, planning was relegated. More than 30 years we neglected the power sector,” he said.
The minister, however, gave the PDP leadership cheerful news when he said that the Federal Government is transforming the sector just as it did to the telecommunication section.
Mr. Usman said Nigeria signed several bilateral agreements with other countries but is not getting the full benefits of those agreements.
He said that the ministry is confronted with many challenges such as inadequate funding of programmes and projects, capacity gaps in Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, due to high turnover of staff, pooling system and current subjective training and performance measures.
He listed other challenges to include late feedback/communication from MDAs which he said hinders prompt delivery of actions; refusal of MDAs to use official NBS data; absence of strategic plans in some MDAs; inadequate Information Technology (IT) hardware for MDAs networking; non-passage of the National Planning and Projects Continuity Bill by the National Assembly; absence of a legal framework for the performance contracting system etc.
In his opening remarks, the National Chairman of the PDP, Bamanga Tukur, explained that the idea behind the interaction is for Nigerians to know that the government formed by the party is doing the right thing.
He added that through planning the party could navigate its manifesto.
Mr. Tukur admonished all the ministers to work with one another in order to ensure service delivery.