Udoma: FG will Sustain Social Investment Programmes

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja
The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, has promised that the federal government would sustain investment programmes, which it  introduced in the 2016 Budget.

Udoma said the programme would be continued in the 2017 budget, christened ‘the budget of recovery and growth’ which has just been passed by the Natonal Assembly.

“The 2017 budget will consolidate on the gains of the 2016 budget, including earmarking about 31 per cent for capital projects. The budget was prepared on the basis of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan and contains many projects that will stimulate growth in the economy such as the social housing fund and the Special Economic Zones programme, the minister said yesterday at a town hall meeting in Abuja organised to brief Nigerians on the achievements of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in the last two years.

Udoma stated that the country’s economic situation is changing for the better as the macroeconomic environment is being stabilised and inflation rate trending downwards in the last two months.
According to him, government interventions, particularly in fixing the broken infrastructure, is making impact and there, adding that there are positive signs that the economy is working its way out of recession this year towards a path of sustained inclusive growth and development.

He pointed out that government was making progress in changing the economy and also changing the people’s attitudes.
Udoma was optimistic that the economy would receive further boost as government rolls out the full implementation of the Economic Recovery and growth Plan (ERGP).

Apart from the policies and plans guiding the country’s economic trajectory, the minister noted that several infrastructure projects are on-going across the country with some nearing completion.