THE Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma, says the Federal Government will establish delivery units in six ministries for the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).

Udoma spoke with State House correspondents after a meeting of the ERGP Central Steering Committee, Chaired by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday.

ERGP is a Medium Term Plan for 2017 – 2020 developed by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari for the purpose of restoring economic growth.

“It was agreed to establish ministry delivery units in the six affected ministries- Agriculture, Transportation, Trade and Investment, Mines and Steel Development and Power, Works and Housing and Budget and National Planning.

“Those delivery units will continue with problem solving of critical challenges faced by investors in all those sectors.

“It was agreed that the overall philosophy of the focus labs should be continued as the Federal Government is committed to sponsoring a few more mini-focus labs to tackle key issues faced by investors.

“So, the focus lab concept is a continuing concept, which we are working on and we will do more mini focus labs.

“The steering committee also agreed to establish a special office within the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to focus on the Cotton, Textile and Garment industry (CTG),’’ Udoma said.

He said that the modalities of the office which would focus on CTG were being worked out by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment.

According to him, electric power sector is a key focus of the meeting as it agreed to redouble its effort at engaging and communicating Nigeria’s single and coherent vision for the power sector working with the private sector.

The minister said that it appeared that the overall roadmap and impact of several initiatives that the Federal Government was working on was not fully understood; hence it was agreed to communicate this single roadmap to the general public.

“In addition, there are issues that have been referred to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor to look into, including wider access of intervention funds by agricultural companies.

“Other issues were referred to various other ministries to look at and address in the next few weeks.

“So, we will continue to monitor and continue to move forward with the effective implementation of the various projects that came out of the ERGP Focus labs.

“This is still early days as many of the ventures in agriculture and power are still being worked upon,’’ Udoma said. (NAN)

– Aug. 20, 2018 @ 18:35 GMT |