The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved the retention of Malaysian consultants to help conduct a study that would aid the implementation of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.
The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of a meeting of the council presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja
Udoma put the cost of the approved consultancy job at N458m.
He said the consultants would identify relevant stakeholders in both the public and private sectors for the implementation of the ERGP.
The minister explained that the study would be conducted in agriculture, transportation, power, gas and processing, among others.
Udoma stated, “Today, the Federal Executive Council approved a memorandum that was brought by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning to retain some consultants to help us to conduct some pilot labs. This is part of our implementation strategy for the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.
“We intend to conduct three labs; one in agriculture and transportation, one in power and gas, and one in manufacturing and processing. The key objectives of the labs include to identify all relevant key stakeholders from the public and private sectors that are crucial in the delivery and implementation of the ERGP initiative so as to create ownership early on in the development process.
“We will review and re-evaluate the ERGP and sectoral plans against set targets and progress, and will include identifying gaps in the current ecosystem and the key success factors. We will further deliver detailed three-phase implementation programme and line-by-line implementation activities.”
He added, “We will identify entry point projects, we will identify key performance indicators, breaking down silos and encouraging key players. Now, the focus of the lab is to mobilise private sector investment to finance specific capital projects. Public resources are limited, so these labs will bring in private sector players.
“We will look at the various areas, including infrastructure and manufacturing, and bring them in and mobilise private sector financing and resources for the labs. So, what the council has approved today is that we bring in some consultants who did a similar thing in Malaysia to try to help us build our own capacity; they will just help us at the beginning and after that, we will take over and do it ourselves.”
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