The Federal Government announced on Tuesday that it has chosen six main pillars, including economy, social development, infrastructure, governance, environment, as well as states and regional development, which would form the thrust of the 2016-2020 national budgets.
The new draft policy thrust and identified priority programmes unveiled in Abuja align with President Buhari’s proposed zero based budgeting strategy, which seeks to allocate the nation’s lean resources according to identified priorities, as against the envelope budgeting system that had been in place over the years.
The policy was announced in Abuja by the National Planning Commission, which has been working with the budget office on the possibility of cutting down the nation’s burgeoning recurrent expenditure in line Buhari’s directives.
Speaking at a workshop to validate the new fiscal policy, Bassey Akpayoung, Secretary to the Planning Commission, said under each of these pillars, broad policy objectives have been identified along with key performance Indicators (KPIs), targets, and programmes.
The proposed policy objectives for the plan include, among others, macroeconomic stability and efficient resource management; real sector development; achieving holistic and sustainable reform in education sector; and achieving qualitative and affordable healthcare.
Others include, infrastructure development; sustainable environment and land use; security sector governance; good governance, rule of law and improving efficiency in the public service, strengthening global partnerships and international cooperation, and state and regional development.
Akpayoung said the draft policy thrust has benefitted from comments and suggestions from various stakeholders within the public sector, and that the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are expected to provide well-costed programmes and projects for enhanced delivery of the plan.
He also harped on the need for the MDAs to justify the programmes and projects and the associated cost based on the KPIs.
He said the planning commission would adopt comprehensive project selection criteria for admitting projects into the plan.
The principles that would guide project selection include, among other things, impact on employment and welfare, inter-linkages with other sectors and projects, alignment with the post 2015 development Agenda/Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), potential for significant economic impact, and potential to attract private
