The Minister of State Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba has said that the Ministry will strengthen its collaboration with MDAs to ensure the smooth operation of the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) in planning, executing, and evaluation of programs and projects aimed at enhancing the socio-economic wellbeing.
The Minister made this known during the evaluative workshop on the implementation of programs and projects under the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) held at the Custodian Hotel in Abuja.
The Minister who was represented by the Director Economic Growth of the Ministry,Mrs Elizabeth Egharevba informed that “ESP was conceptualized by the present administration to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the effects of global recession resulting from economic meltdown worldwide, adding that the pandemic led to massive loss of jobs, disruption in supply chains, low global oil prices due to low demand and low revenue generation for the country”.
Prince Agba pointed out that “the Federal Government invested ₦500bn in the implementation of the ESP projects and programs from July 2020 and were completed towards the end of 2021, noting that about 1.3million jobs were saved through the Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSME) payroll support, 774,000 people were engaged in the public works program under the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and 26,021 jobs were generated from construction/rehabilitation of Federal roads under the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA).
The Minister further stated that about 400 units of housing were constructed in Borno, Katsina, Edo, Zamfara, and Kano State to address the housing needs of displaced Nigerians, adding that 495 kilometers of rural roads were constructed to boost agricultural production by enabling timely access to markets by farmers and to prevent post-harvest losses, 129,000 crop farmers and 38,333 animal farmers were supported from the farm input support loan facility.
He emphasized that the country also improved its Biovaccine production and testing capacity through the acquisition of reagents and establishing the state of the art laboratories in the following institutions:
The Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) in Lagos; The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and
National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD).
In his remarks the Permanent Secretary Engr. Nebeolisa Anako represented by the Director of National Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr. Zakari Lawal said that “the objective of the meeting is to provide a platform for government to evaluate the performance of the project implementation and the impact on individuals and communities after their completion in 2021, urging participants to provide the evaluators with all the relevant information/data that will support in determining the impact of the projects on the beneficiaries”.
He further stated that the outcome of the exercise will help in addressing sustainability issues, and guide the conceptualization and implementation of similar future projects and programs of government.
Olatunji Modupe Susan(Mrs)
Senior Information Officer
For: Director, Information (FMBN)
Participants at the Evaluative Workshop with Beneficiaries and Implementers of the Programmes and Projects under the Economic Sustainability Plan, in Abuja.
