IMF, Bill Gates on collusion course over review, implementation of ERGP by FG
More twists are still trailing the federal government’s economic development blueprint, the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) as less than 48 hours after US billionaire and founder of Microsoft group, Mr. Bill Gates called for a review that will include human capital development in the plan, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has advised for fast tracking of the implementation process.
Gates had at the rare expanded National Economic Council (NEC) meeting of the federal government last week, reviewed the ERGP document and told the government to go back to the drawing board if it wants to made sustainable progress in aggregate development.
However, the Senior Representative and Mission Chief for Nigeria Department, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Amine Mati, weekend in Abuja at the international conference of Social Sciences organised by NILE University, said that the Federal Government must put plans in place so as to achieve a higher growth compared to the 0.8 per cent observed in 2017.
According to him, “For Nigeria to grow, the government must start the implementation of its ERGP. There are several priorities like increasing revenue growth from 5 to 15 per cent, having unified exchange rate, addressing the structural gap, strengthening the anti-corruption effort with financial inclusion.”
Besides, several experts who had been hailing the packaging and launch of ERGP by the federal government have started toeing Gates line of thinking that there is need to rejig the policy to get a better result.
