Udoma: We’ll Make Provision for Social Housing in 2017 Budget

Ndubuisi Francis

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, has disclosed that the federal government would make provision for social housing in the 2017 budget.

He stated that government’s intention was to make the private sector to drive the process.

Briefing the Assistant Secretary for Multilateral Affairs of the Trade and Policy Department at the French Treasury, Mr. Guillaume Chabert, in Abuja yesterday, Udoma explained that the stimulative effect of investing in infrastructure was enormous and was the surest way of setting the country on the part of growth and sustainable development.

“Our intention is to make the private sector lead the way in social housing. We will kick-start the process and intend to make some provision for it in the 2017 budget.

“Then we are also looking at manufacturing. One of the ways is by developing export processing zones where we will have all the required infrastructure including power, rail and security, to encourage manufacturers to relocate to Nigeria,” the minister said according to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Akpandem James.

He restated that Nigeria’s borrowings are solely to fund infrastructure projects.

The minister told the Assistant Secretary, who was accompanied by the French Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Denys Gauer, that the Nigerian government is working on a National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (NERGP) which is tailor-made to move the country’s economy out of recession and set it on a growth path.

According to him, “Our plan is that we should be able within that plan period (2017-2020) to achieve not less than 7 per cent growth.”

This, he said, involves a number of things, adding: “For one, to get out of economic recession we will need to harness resources by plugging revenue leakages and by looking at new revenue sources in order to generate the resources required to spend our way out of recession, particularly focused on infrastructure.”

The Assistant Secretary, Mr. Chabert, while appreciating the economic challenges the country is currently facing said the French government would be willing to support Nigeria surmount the challenges, noting that “it is in our interest that Nigeria succeeds.”

He promised to make some inputs into the country’s economic plan once the framework is made available.