NEC okays plan to reduce poor Nigerians to 2.1 by 2050

The National Economic Council (NEC) Tuesday endorsed “Nigeria Agenda 2050” designed to reduce the number of poor Nigerians to 2.1m by 2050.

The agenda is also to take the country through to upper middle-income countries and subsequently to the status of high-income countries.

The Agenda 2050 was presented by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to state governors and other members of NEC at the first NEC meeting this year.

The chairman of NEC, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said the Plan “captures a lot of the expectations for Nigeria in the future and hopefully implementation which is key if effectively done.” 

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The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, said the Federal Government had taken steps in ensuring the operationalization of the plan, especially with the inauguration of the Steering Committee of the National Development Plan.

Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, in a statement, said Agenda 2050 was to help Nigeria attain her desire to successfully join the group of upper-middle-income countries and subsequently to a high-income group with annual average real GDP growth projection of 7.0 per cent. 

He said: “Nigeria’s long-term ambition is to improve its per capita GDP from about US$2,084.05 in 2020 to US$6,223.23 in 2030 and US$33,328.02 in 2050, with rapid and sustained economic growth, job creation and poverty reduction.

“The real growth rate of the GDP of the first medium-term NDP 2021-2025 on average will be 4.65% and this will increase to 8.01% in the second NDP; subsequently, it’s expected to increase to 8.43% in the third.

“Consequently, the number of full-time jobs created will be roughly 165 million during the Agenda period to spur poverty reduction.

“The number of people in poverty will decline from roughly 83 million in 2020 to about 47.8m in 2025 and to 2.1m by 2050, thus taking a significant segment of the population out of poverty.”