APC, Budget Minister Meet on Economic Recovery Plan

• Udoma insists recession will end this year

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) wednesday met with the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, for several hours on the state of the economy and to seek ways of redeeming promises made to the people.

The minister met with the party leadership for hours behind closed doors and at the end told journalists that he had just given assurances to the party that the federal government is doing everything possible to see that the country exit from recession this year.

Speaking on the state of the economy, the minister said from available indices, the country would surely come out of recession this year.

On the issued budget implementation especially as it related to the recently launched economic growth plan, Udoma said: “Implementation of the 2017 budget will be targeted at achieving the objectives of the ERGP and delivering on the promises of the APC and of Mr. President.

“As a ministry, we will continue to strengthening our monitoring and evaluation framework – covering physical inspection/verification as well as Impact Assessment of projects/programme implemented by MDAs.

In terms of ERGP implementation, the minister said much of the capital provision in the 2017 budget is directed at projects that are aligned with the core execution priorities of the ERGP. He called on the party’s hierarchy support to ensure delivery of the plan’s objectives starting with the 2017 budget.

Speaking earlier, the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, in his remarks before the meeting went into a closed-door session, noted that the 2017-2020 Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) is fundamental in rebuilding and strengthening of the foundation of country, particularly the economy.

He said the idea behind the invitation was to update members of the national leadership of the party on the situation concerning the economy and specifically when the country will come out of recession.

Oyegun said the economic plan is fundamental because it is the basis for which the rebuilding and strengthening of the foundation of this nation is going to be based.

“We will benefit from his presentation today because what he will tell us is very important message of what we will tell Nigerians. We want to tell people about how soon the recession will ending or whether we are out of it already.

“What we will tell Nigerians must be based on first hand knowledge and facts. With the presentation, we will be in position to say that this is where we are likely to be three years from now,” he said.