The vice president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has said that Nigeria’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) Focus Labs has largely achieved what it set out to do by identifying $22.5 billion in private investments from 164 projects
ERGP is the federal government’s medium-term plan for 2017 – 2020 to jumpstart the country’s economic development.
Osinbajo disclosed this in his remarks while declaring open the ERGP held in Abuja today said the federal government had been working hard to ensure Nigeria’s economic prosperity and a brighter future.
“The ERGP Focus Labs have succeeded in identifying more than US$22.5 billion in private investments from about 164 projects, which can be unlocked. Of this amount, USD $10.9 billion of them are what we call ‘Most Ready’ projects, that is, we are almost sure to unlock these projects and accelerate their delivery by the private sector. These projects are forecast to create more than half a million new permanent jobs for the people of Nigeria up until the year 2020, demonstrating the far-reaching impact of the ERGP Focus Labs in unleashing a brighter future for our country.
Doing a comparative study, the vice president said: “The ERGP is unlike others introduced by governments in the past. At its core is a focused approach to its implementation, supported in particular, by the highest level of political will, from the President himself through to our civil servants on the ground… It is no longer business as usual for us in government.
“We are working to ensure that the promises made in the President’s manifesto come to fruition for the people of Nigeria. It is our aim to make these Focus Labs a success so that Nigeria can take a transformative step towards sustained economic prosperity and social livability.”
Going down memory lane, Osinbajo said government commenced Wave 1 of the ERGP Focus Labs in February 2018 to accelerate the implementation of the ERGP. “For six weeks, the participants of the labs, made up of both public and private sector representatives, rigorously drilled down the issues with the projects presented, and brain-stormed on how to resolve these issues, and the bureaucratic reforms needed to fast-track the development of our country,” he said.
He reiterated the federal government’s commitment to seeing the ERGP through to its completion.
“Given the overwhelming interest of the private sector in this initiative, and the clamour for more Labs, we are very sure that we will follow through this process and the Focus Labs would not be an isolated episode,” he added.