Muhammadu Buhari Announces a New National Economic Vision Tagged Nigeria Agenda 2050

The Nigeria Vision 20:2020, an ambitious national agenda to join the top 20 largest economies in terms of GDP, was obviously inspired by the Goldman Sachs Report of 2005, listing Nigeria among what the global investment bank called the Next 11 Countries: Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Turkey and Vietnam.

Earlier in 2001, the bank had published a report, asserting that Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) have the capacity to rival the developed economies of USA, Japan, Germany, UK, etc. The Next 11 Report was a follow up on the BRIC concept. In 2010, South Africa was added to the quad, and the acronym became BRICS.

With a GDP of $448.12 billion in December 31, 2019, the World Bank currently ranked Nigeria 26th, indicating that we have fallen short of our top 20 global GDP ambition. But noting that it has become necessary to develop a successor plan to the Nigeria Vision 20:2020 and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), both of which lapsed on December 31, 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari, on September 9, 2020, announced a new vision for the country tagged, Nigeria Agenda 2050. The ERGP, covering 2017-2020, was Buhari’s economic agenda to overcome the recession of 2016, the first of its kind in over two decades. But the plan was already faltering as far back as early 2019.

Taking a cue from the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), we think that each state of the country including the FCT should begin the process of rolling out its own Agenda 2050. Needless to say, key industry regulators like Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and other federal ministries, agencies and departments (MDAs) should completely fall in line with this new agenda in their own peculiar ways. Nigerian companies of all sizes (mega, major, big, medium, small, mini and micro), based at home and abroad, should also begin to come up with their own Nigeria Agenda 2050.

A great economy is usually one in which the public, private and educational sectors work together in sync. The failures of the past do not stop a serious person from dreaming about better times ahead. Nigeria shouldn’t be different.