By FAVOUR NNABUGWU
The federal government is depending on the public and private sectors to fund the N32 trillion needed for the First Implementation Plan (FIB) of vision 20:2020. Prof Sylvester Monye, Secretary, National Planning Commission, said this recently in Kaduna at the Validation Workshop of the Nigerian Study on the ECOWAS Community Development Programme (CDP).

He said, “It is also reassuring to note that the NV 20:2020 is to be implemented through three different medium term plans with the time framework of 2010 – 2013; 2014 – 2017 and 2018 -2020”

He further said, “The respective First Implementation Plan 2010 – 2013 has been produced and currently being implemented. This plan has an investment size of N32 trillion to be funded by the public and private sectors”

Nigeria’s vision 20:2020, he said, aligned with the aspirations of Economic Community for West Africa Countries (ECOWAS) vision which is strategically driven by the Community Development Plan (CDP).

ECOWAS CDP was launched by the ECOWAS Commission in order to provide a regional response to the concrete and pragmatic challenge faced with the implementation of the Vision 2020 whose main objective is to accelerate and deepen the regional economic integration by moving from an ECOWAS of States to an ECOWAS of peoples.

To give a concrete expression to this new vision, the ECOWAS Commission has initiated the formulation of the ECOWAS Community Development Program (CDP) to translate the long term development strategy of the region into coherent programmes of action.

The main objective of the CDP is to serve as a platform of cooperation among stakeholders on regional development issues and to ensure coherence and synergy between sector programmes, policies, and development strategies of ECOWAS Member States, ECOWAS Commission and other regional institutions.

Monye explained that it was in line with the vision of the ECOWAS CDP that Nigerian inaugurated the National Committee on Community Development Programme (NC_CDP) in Kaduna five months ago, adding that the committee had been working relentlessly in order to play active role in the formulation of the CDP process in ECOWAS.

The workshop, he said, validated the process of CDP National Studies in Anglophone countries, stating that the national studies on CDP were commissioned in 15 states in order to take stock of development strategies and programs in each country. The main objective of the workshop, he explained further was to validate the content of the report ad to create a platform for ownership of the study.