Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday launched the Nigeria Agenda 2050 (NA 2050), a new long-term national development plan that aims to place the most populous African country among the top middle-income economies in the world by 2050.
The NA 2050, launched at the presidential palace in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, aims to ensure that Africa’s largest economy attains a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of 33,328 U.S. dollars per annum, Buhari said.
The national plan also has a vision of a dynamic, industrialized, and knowledge-based economy that generates inclusive and sustainable development for the country, he explained.
“You will recall that in March 2020, I approved the development of successor plans to both Nigeria Vision 20:2020 and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan 2017-2020. The plans lapsed in December 2020,” the Nigerian leader said, highlighting the impacts of the national economic development plans that pre-dated the newly launched NA 2050.
Given the measures already in place for continuous plan implementation, successive administrations will find the document useful in the delivery of electoral promises, noted Buhari, who will quit office as Nigerian leader later this month.
The president described the unveiling and public presentation of the NA 2050 as “another milestone in the annals of the history of our planning experience, post-independence,” adding that this feat had also shown his outgoing administration’s commitment to national development and plan implementation since he took office on May 29, 2015.
With the expected improved capital accumulation, investment as a ratio to GDP is expected to increase from the current 29.40 percent to 40.11 percent by 2050, according to the government’s projection. Under the plan, the bulk of the investment is expected to be financed by the private sector, while total employment is expected to rise to 203.41 million in 2050 from 46.49 million in 2020.
This also implies that unemployment in the country will drop significantly to 6.3 percent in 2050 from 33.3 percent in 2020, with the corollary that the number of people in poverty is expected to drop to 2.1 percent by 2050 from 83 million in 2020.
Also speaking at the unveiling of the plan, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning Zainab Ahmed said the NA 2050 was formulated against the backdrop of subsisting economic and social challenges facing Nigeria, including low, fragile, and non-inclusive growth, insecurity, high population growth rate, limited concentric economic diversification, and low productivity.
“The plan is a long-term economic transformation blueprint designed to address these challenges,” she added.
Source: Lao News Agency