2019: 10 Strategic Ways To Get Nigeria Working Again – Atiku

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar has said his government will adopt ten strategic plans to get Nigeria working again.

Atiku is battling President Muhammadu Buhari for the country’s number one position in the election billed for February 16.

While speaking at the Lagos Island Club on Wednesday, he lamented that the country is not working.

According to the former Vice President, Nigeria’s rising unemployment level is heart-rending.

He, however, listed ten ways that his government will deploy to correct the problem:

1. We will restore investor confidence on the Nigerian economy. We all know that over the last four years, the actions or inactions of the Federal Government, have resulted in a significant drop in investor confidence in the Nigerian economy.

As a consequence, there has been a significant decline in capital importation since the regime came into power in 2015.

Today, Ghana – a country with just 14% of our population – attracts more FDI than Nigeria. In order to reverse the trend, our economic policies will be more coherent, consistent and therefore, more predictable by the business community.

Nothing could be more threatening to investment flows than an environment that is full of policy flip-flops.

1. We will support the private sector by undertaking reforms to unleash its growth potential and to play a key role in the economy.

TheAtikuPlan recognizes the private sector as the engine of growth of our economy. A strong, productive and pro-growth private sector is needed to create wealth, generate employment opportunities and help fight poverty.

We pledge to improve government consultations with the private sector in policy design and policy implementation.

We will work with the Organized Private Sector to identify ways to reduce the cost of borrowing, tackle incidences of multiple taxations and improve the availability of foreign exchange for legitimate production input purchases.

1. We will liberalize the economic space and privatise all ailing enterprises. In particular, the #TheAtikuPlan will undertake a de-regulation of the downstream sector of the economy, review the PIB and privatize all four State refineries that operate at 10% of their installed capacities.

We shall channel the proceeds from the privatisation into a special fund for the development of education and health.

1. We will assist the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to grow bigger and to be more productive. As we all know, small businesses offer the greatest opportunities for achieving inclusive pro-poor growth, through increased self-employment.

Our focus shall be on improving their access to affordable, long term funds, provision of critical infrastructure as well as adequate training for their workforce to improve productive capacity.

1. We will prioritize Human Capital Development. Our philosophy is that people are the fundamental reason for economic growth.

Accordingly, we will increase investments in the human development sub-sectors especially education and health by committing 25% of the budget to education and 15% to health under a collaborative process and within the 3G partnership;

1. We will create jobs by growing the economy and promoting innovative flagship job creation programmes such as The National Open Apprenticeship Programme through which we shall enhance the capacity of Master-Craftsmen and women to train 1,000,000 apprentices every year.

Our National Innovation Fund and SME Venture Capital Fund initiatives will provide stable and sustainable long-term support to aspiring entrepreneurs.

1. We will create an Economic Stimulus Fund with an initial investment capacity of approximately US$25 billion to support private sector investments in infrastructure. Power sector reform will be a critical policy priority.

Our vision is to accelerate investment to double our infrastructure stock to approximately 50% of GDP by 2025 and 70% by 2030.

Re-building infrastructure and reducing infrastructure deficit will enhance the carrying capacity of the economy and unleash growth and wealth creation.

1. We will improve liquidity by undertaking fiscal restructuring and improving the management of our fiscal resources by:
   Improving spending efficiency by reducing the share of recurrent expenditure and increasing the share of capital expenditure in the budget.

Recurrent expenditure over the medium term should not exceed 45% of the budget.
Raising additional revenue by blocking leakages from exchange rate adjustment.

The official rate on which the 2019 budget is based US$/N305 with a parallel market rate of approximately US$/365.

FGN will appropriate the premium in excess of N60/US$. Reviewing subsidy payments on PMS.

The Federal Government has set aside billions of Naira for subsidy payment in the 2019 budget. This will instead go into the funding of education and health.

1. We will build strong and efficient service delivery institutions for more effective coordination of government policies and for effective support to the development of a dynamic and internationally competitive private sector.

We will re-position the public sector to become more disciplined and performance-oriented.

1. We shall, through constitutional means, achieve a new political structure that guarantees freedoms and ensures government accountability at all levels.

Our political reform shall reinforce the country’s concept of true Federalism by conceding unfettered autonomy to the subordinating units (States and Local Governments).