El-Rufai Counters Bill Gates Over Disapproval Of FG’s ERGP

Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, says the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) of the current administration “has enough provision for human capital”.

The governor said this in response to a statement credited to Bill Gates at the expanded National Economic Council presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, at the State House Conference Center, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Advertisement

Gates had criticised the ERGP saying it does not reflect people’s needs.

“The Nigerian government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan identifies” investing in our people” as one of three ” strategic objectives”. But the” execution priorities” don’t fully reflect people’s needs, prioritizing physical capital over human capital,” Gates said at the event with the theme; “Role of human capital investment in supporting pro- poor and economic growth agenda”

The Microsoft founder urged Nigeria “to face the facts so that you can make progress”

Mr Gates’ criticism of the ERGP lines up with preceding warnings by the World Bank Group that the country’s economic recovery is “fraught with a high degree of fragility and risks”.

Advertisement

The World Bank had said this when Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, and her Budget and Planning counterpart, Udo Udoma, presented the ERGP to the Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The IMF had expressed dissatisfaction with the ERGP, saying “Much more needs to be done” on the plan.

But reacting on Thursday, El-Rufai said it is incorrect to say the execution process of the economic and ERGP does not truly reflect the needs of Nigerians.

The Kaduna governor, who was present at the event today said what the ERGP requires is for state governments to adopt similar plans, and not an adjustment of the plan.

“On the review of ERGP as suggested by Gates, it is not correct to say that the economic recovery and growth plan does not give primacy to human capital, it is not correct,” el-Rufai said.

Advertisement

“The economic recovery and growth plan has enough provision for human capital, it is a federal government plan, what is needed is for states to have similar plans as well as adequate provisions for healthcare and education.

“Because the bulk of the burden for healthcare and education really rests on states governments. The disease burden of the country is largely at the primary healthcare level and this primary healthcare system is broken completely, we need to rebuild it.

“It is the responsibility of the states rather than the federal government. The federal government incentifies with funding, grants and aids. But essentially, routine immunization, primary healthcare, is the responsibility of the states.

“So it is not gaps in the ERGP that we are looking at, it is appealing to states governments to provide more money in basic education, primary healthcare. It is not the ERGP that needs adjustments, it is the budgeting that needs to be ramped up in these two key areas because these are where the problems are.

“If a child losses equality education, he is done for life. If a child doesn’t get quality healthcare in the first two years, he is destroyed for life. This is the message that we invest more at the lower level, so that we prevent this disaster from happening.”

The ERGP, according to the Presidency, is a Medium Term Plan for 2017 – 2020, developed by the Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari for the purpose of restoring economic growth while leveraging the ingenuity and resilience of the Nigerian people.

Advertisement

The Buhari-administration introduced the strategy in 2017 after the country was hit by its worst recession in 29 years.

Leave a comment

Advertisement