SEC Tasks Govt on National Development Plan Implementation for Economic Growth

Focusing on the step-by-step implementation of Nigeria’s National Development is one of the keys to achieving economic growth in Nigeria, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said.

This was stated by Mr Dayo Obisan, the representative of SEC Director-General,Lamido Yuguda, at the Nairametrics Economic Outlook webinar held on Saturday, July 16.

Mr Obisan who said productivity would alleviate poverty noted that in Nigeria, a lot of policies have been put up, but the issue usually is the implementation of those policies.

Obisan who is the Executive Commissioner (Operations) at Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria, said Nigeria’s National development plan already has six objectives that touch on different sectors.

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“Where we are now is not to spend more time writing new policies but we need to focus on the implementation of those policies – both the government and the citizenry,” Obisan said.

When asked what policy should be brought to boost productivity in Nigeria he said, “What we need to look at is what we need to do to increase the level of implementation and actualising several plans.”

Speaking further, he said, “In my head, it’s about the implementation. Let’s talk about how to even boost productivity? And what does this productivity mean in the minds of people.”

Speaking on what other policies we are expected to see in order to drive GDP, he said “I think the main thing we need to do is for us to constantly appraise the situation and implement what we have already planned. A lot of these things have been crafted on paper.

“So instead of just advising, let’s just focus on the Nigerian National development plan because it has different tentacles spread across different sectors in terms of even the cluster areas that it wants to achieve. What else do we need at this time and going forward?”

“Let’s all just look at the National development plan, it is in there. All agencies and ministries will take away their beats from it, execute it, break it down whether laws need to be amended, whether rules need to be cracked, and whether stakeholder engagements need to be heard.

“We should just look at the National development plan and focus on implementing it step by step,” he added.

The National Development Plan 2021-2025 focuses on six broad objectives which include: Economic diversification, Investment in infrastructure, Security and good governance, Educated and healthy population, Poverty alleviation, and Economic and social development across states.

According to the plan, Nigeria projects that by 2025, the effective implementation of the plan is expected to achieve an average economic growth of 4.6% thereby lifting 35 million people out of poverty and also creating 21 million full-time jobs for Nigerians.