The National Economic Council (NEC) has approved an ambitious plan to create 165 million jobs, increase the real gross domestic product (GDP) to 8.43 percent, and ultimately, cut the number of Nigerians in poverty to 2.1 million by 2050.
The plan that is codenamed, “Nigeria Agenda 2050” was endorsed on Tuesday by the NEC at its maiden meeting in 2023 and is designed to take the country through to Upper Middle-Income Country and subsequently to the status of High-Income countries.
While the real gross domestic product (GDP) notched an annual rate of 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022 after increasing by 3.2 percent in the third quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) after the 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index Survey, announced in November 2022 that 63 percent or 133 million of persons living in Nigeria are multidimensionally poor and the Nigeria Agenda 2050 is one of the measures to address these.
The agenda which was presented by the Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning to state governors and other members of the Council, including federal ministers, aims to significantly improve the country’s per capita GDP through rapid and sustained economic growth. It is also to ensure Nigeria achieves its long-term ambition of improving its per capita GDP from about $2,084.05 in 2020 to $6,223.23 in 2030 and $33,328.02 in 2050 and also reach 7 percent annual average real GDP growth between now and 2050.
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On the implementation of the agenda, the country is expected to achieve a real growth rate of 4.65 percent by the first medium-term NDP 2021-2025, then 8.01 percent by the second NDP and, subsequently increase to 8.43 percent by the third NDP.
With the increase in GDP growth, the country is expected to create economic activities to absorb 165 million people unemployed to full-time jobs to spur poverty reduction.
According to the agenda, the number of Nigerians in poverty is expected to will decline from roughly 83 million in 2020 to about 47.8 million in 2025 and to 2.1 million by 2050, thus taking a significant segment of the population out of poverty.
At a meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, he observed that the plan “captures a lot of the expectations for Nigeria in the future and hopefully implementation which is key if effectively done.”
Also commenting on the Agenda 2050, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba said the Federal Government has taken unprecedented steps in ensuring the operationalization of the plan, especially with the inauguration of the Steering Committee of the National Development Plan by the VP.
Osinbajo had earlier on Tuesday, inaugurated the steering committee of the National Development Plan (NDP), to implement the work of the national steering committee that was inaugurated on 9th September 2020 to prepare the Medium-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP) 2021 – 2025 and Nigeria Agenda 2050.
The Nigeria Agenda 2050 is formulated against the backdrop of several subsisting development challenges in the country including low, fragile, and non-inclusive economic growth; high population growth rate, pervasive insecurity, limited diversification, macroeconomic and social instability, low productivity, and high import dependence.
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