BY HENRY UMORU
Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsuddeen Usman yesterday called for support towards the achievement of growth targets set in the National Implementation Plan, NIP, 2010-2013 in line with the Vision 20:2020 economic growth agenda.

Speaking at the presentation of the commission’s 2010 sectoral Monitoring and Evaluation, M&E, report, said the country’s global GDP ranking improved during the period under consideration.

He explained that the unveiling was in respect of the FOI Act which encourages transparency in conduct of government business.

Dr Usman said: “We have to respect the law. Government should voluntarily provide information and data on governance. We had to set internationally agreed benchmarks like single digit inflation, stability of the exchange rate and single digit unemployment rate. To do this we had to set up a specialized department for M&E.”

In the M&E report, the sectoral growth performance in 2010 reveals that only three sectors, namely –oil and gas, transportation and wholesale and retail trade were able to meet growth targets set in the National Implementation Plan, NIP, 2010-2013.

The report showed that the manufacturing sector, utilities (including electricity), and building and construction sectors performed very poorly, in relation to the targets set. “Their performance can be worse in the future, unless fundamental steps are taken to address the binding constraints to growth, so that the growth potentials of these sectors can be unleashed.” the report further said

The report noted that the economy recorded a “modest improvement in the performance of the economy during 2010 with the overall real GDP growth rate at 7.8%”. It however pointed out that the figure fell short of the double digit growth required to achieve the NV20:2020 target.

The minister was however excited that the country’s ranking on the basis of nominal GDP edged up from 44th position in 2009 to 41st position in 2010. On the basis of purchasing power parity, which eliminates the effects of exchange rate price variations in goods and services across countries, Nigeria’s GDP ranking edged up from 37 in 2009 to 31 in 2010. “This implies that Nigeria has made significant progress in line with our vision to rank among the top 20 economies in the world by moving up 3 and 6 steps respectively in the one year since Mr President’s assumed his current role as president of Nigeria.

The minister said that with Nigeria’s return to strategic planning after about three decades, the need for an effective National Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) System has emerged as one of the key outcomes of the Vision 20:2020 Economic Transformation Blueprint and development process and identified as a critical success factor for Vision 20:2020.

According to the minister, “this report which is the first of its kind in the nation’s history is the product of painstaking and diligent efforts by over 250 staff, representing over 90 Federal Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs). The outcome is a valuable tool for assessing programme impact that conforms to international best practices in M&E.”