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Nigerian leader launches economic recovery, growth plan

Xinhua, April 5, 2017 Adjust font size:

Nigerian leader Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday said the government was approaching the right solution to the west African country's economic challenges when he launched a national Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).

"The Economic Recovery and Growth Plan brings together all our sectoral plans for agriculture and food security, energy and transport infrastructure, industrialization and social investments together in a single document," Buhari said.

The new 140-page document was designed specifically to take the country out of its present economic recession and, in the long term, continue to grow the economy.

Launched at the Presidential Palace in Abuja, the plan is also expected to accelerate speedy recovery and development of infrastructure in the African country.

The new national economic plan has restoring sustainable, accelerated inclusive growth and development, investing in the people, and building a globally competitive economy, as its strategic objectives.

Buhari said the new plan will also make it possible for Nigeria to achieve a seven percent growth rate by 2020, adding the country was determined to change from "an import-dependent country to a producing nation."

"Our aim, simply put, is to optimize local content and empower local businesses. We seek not just to take the Nigerian economy out of recession but to place it on a path of sustained, inclusive and diversified growth," he said.

Economic experts in Nigeria have lauded the objectives of the new national plan, most of them hoping that it will help the oil-rich country grow sustainably and become less reliant on oil revenue for growth.

Ogho Okiti, Nigerian economist and chief executive officer of Time Economics, an Abuja-based economic consulting firm, said, however, a careful look at the new blueprint shows that for it to be successfully implemented, there will be need for significant and sustained development of resources and political will in areas of infrastructure, agriculture and education, among others. Endit