Economic Recovery Plan Cannot Succeed Without Civil Servants’ Commitment —Budget Minister

THE Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, on Monday, declared that the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) of the President

Muhammadu Buhari-led administration can only succeed with commitment of the civil servants.

The minister made the assertion while declaring open a dialogue session with permanent secretaries and directors general of parastatal agencies on the ERGP implementation road map in Abuja.

“What we need is to organise the talent that we have to ensure greater efficiency and effectiveness in implementing government policies and programmes. And those of you gathered here, as permanent secretaries and top directors, are the people to make it happen,” the minister stated.

He said that the ERGP was aimed at changing Nigeria and Nigerians in a fundamental way, declaring that, “We want to change Nigeria from a nation of consumers, depending on imports for our survival, to a self-reliant nation of producers.”

Udoma added that, “As President Muhammadu Buhari has emphasised, the ERGP is this administration’s blueprint aimed at building a new Nigeria where we grow what we eat, consume what we make and produce what we use.”

He further stated that to achieve this fundamental change, the ERGP had to be effectively and faithfully implemented in order to change the persistent negative narrative about the country, “where many have become very cynical about anything ‘Government’.”

Speaking earlier, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, submitted that the gathering was important as participants were the ones to implement the ERGP.

According to her, the country had always been noted for putting in place intelligent programmes and policies, declaring that the problem had always been at the implementation level.