Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor, Yemi Osibanjo has revealed that the Federal Government of has saved N1.4 trillion from stopping oil subsidy payments.
The VP, who spoke during the third day of the 15th Joint Planning Board and National Council on Development Planning meeting held in Kano, said: “With the deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector, there has been a significant increase in the availability of petrol throughout the country for the savings of N1.4 trillion on subsidy payments alone.”
Osinbajo urged Nigerians to restore confidence in President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, insisting that soonest, the current economic problem will become a thing of the past.
He also assured Nigerians that very soon, the foreign exchange market will stabilize going by some radical policies introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He said:”Also, a more flexible exchange rate regime, we will have to decrease the pressure on the external reserve. In the short run of course, there should be consequences for inflation. We expect that with greater priority we have seen in the implementation of the policy by the CBN, the foreign exchange market will stabilize and confidence will be restored.”
“The adoption of SDGs in September 2015 was intended to place our world on the part of sustainable development by the year 2030. The 17 SDGs, which combined economic, social and environmental objectives are intended to be universal unlike the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which were made solely for developing countries.
“The universal application of the SDGs and their 169 targets show that they are a menu of options, this allows the implementation to take count of different national realities, capacities, policies and priorities.
“In the Nigerian context, some of the issues that must engage our minds will lead to economic diversification, sustain economic growth, eradication of extreme poverty, promoting social inclusion, creating jobs, sparring environmental degradation, including climate change.
“Strategic plans largely provide direction, coherence and coordination and they are a veritable framework for guiding the activities of all stakeholders towards achieving a common goal, planning specifics such as goals, target and indicators which embodies the SDGs, also enables tracking, monitoring and evaluation.
“The successful implementation of strategic plans and attainment of the SDGs entails partnership, as encapsulated in the while 17 which as about the need to create labour partnership in order to attain sustainable development.
He said; “Let me speak briefly about some of the things that the Buhari administration is doing with regard to strengthening short and medium term planning. We have strengthened the link between budgeting and strategic planning by merging the National Planning Commission with the Budget office of the federation.
He added that the government has adopted zero base budgeting, which compels the interrogation of public expenditure at micro levels and allows effective deployment of limited financial resources to areas and sectors with the greatest need.
