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National Economic
Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS)
By MOHAMMED MASHI
What Is NEEDS?
The National Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) Nigeria’s plan for
prosperity. It is the people’s way of letting the government know what kind
of Nigeria they wish to live in now and in the future. It is the
government’s way of letting the people know how it plans to overcome the
deep and pervasive obstacles to progress that the government and the people
have identified. It is also a way of letting the international community
know where Nigeria stands in the region and in the world and how it wishes
to be supported.
What is the vision for Nigeria? What kind of Nigeria do we want for
ourselves, for our children and for the rest of the world? These questions
were our starting point in creating a plan for prosperity. In the three
years it took to develop NEEDS, a dedicated team travelled the country,
holding meetings and workshops to identify what the Nigerian people want for
the future, and what problems they face and what can be done to overcome
them.
NEEDS is the people’s plan. It is up to regular Nigerians as well as the
government to see that it is implemented.
A vision of tomorrow’s Nigeria
The NEEDS vision is based on the Constitution; the Kuru Declaration,
previous initiatives, such as Vision 2010 and the widespread consultation
and participation throughout Nigeria that was part of the NEEDS process. The
programme’s core values recognises the importance of respect for elders,
honesty, and accountability, cooperation, industry, discipline,
self-confidence and moral courage.
Before the restoration of democracy, Nigeria suffered setbacks that
tarnished its reputation. A primary aim of NEEDS is to create a new Nigeria
citizen who values hard work and who realizes that one cannot have something
for nothing. Achieving the aim may be the strongest action Nigeria can take
to build a better future for its people.
Although Nigeria is rich in natural and human resources, 7 of every 10
Nigerians live on less than $1 a day. NEEDS wishes to make poverty athing of
the past in Nigeria. It aims to create a Nigeria that Nigerians can be proud
to belong to and grateful to inhabit, a Nigeria that rewards hard work,
protects its people and their property and offers its children better
prospects than those they may be tempted to seek in Europe or United States.
All citizens, regardless of gender, race, religion, or politics, should feel
that they have a stake in Nigeria’s future and that their loyalty and
diligence will be rewarded. The vision is also one in which Nigeria fulfils
its potential to become Africa’s largest economy a major player in the
global economy.
How can NEEDS help realize this vision?
NEEDS focuses on four key strategies: reorienting values, reducing poverty,
creating wealth, and generating employment. It is based on the notion that
these goals can be achieved only by creating an environment in which
business can thrive, government is redirected to providing basic services,
and people are empowered to take advantage of the new livelihood
opportunities the plan will stimulate.
NEEDS sets out far-reaching public reforms that will make clear that
corruption and graft will be punished. The National Orientation Agency and
its state-level counterparts will be strengthened to lead a campaign to re-instil
the virtues of honesty, hard work, selfless service, moral rectitude and
patriotism. The campaign will draw on resources from a variety of government
agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and community-based
organizations, including schools colleges, universities, and private sector,
religious, social, cultural and traditional organizations.
NEEDS is about the Nigerian people. Their welfare, health, employment,
education, political power, physical security and empowerment are of
paramount importance in realizing this vision of the future. To reduce
poverty and inequality. The plan proposes acting on several fronts:
Offering farmers improved irrigation, machinery, and crop varieties will
help boost agricultural productivity and tackle poverty head on, since half
of Nigeria’s poor people work in agriculture. Supporting small and
medium-size enterprises will help create jobs. Together with the state
economic empowerment and development strategies (SEEDS), NEEDS seeks to
implement an integrated rural development programme to stem the flow of
migration from rural to urban areas.
* Half of Nigeria’s people are children, the bridge to a prosperous future.
NEEDS recognises the importance of children by making the improvement of the
education system a top priority.
* HIV/AIDS is a major social and health problem. It also threatens the
country’s productivity and economy. The plan is to improve the health care
delivery, with emphasis on HIV/AIDS and other preventive diseases, such as
malaria, tuberculosis and reproductive health-related illnesses.
• NEEDS calls for replacing the pension scheme which is in crisis, with a
contributory scheme. It proposes special programmes targeting people who
have weakeast political voice and who are vulnerable to the ravages of
poverty. Laws and programmes will be implemented to empower women, children,
and the elderly.
NEEDS emphasizes the critical importance of improving agriculture. More and
more reliable - electricity and a new and better maintained network of roads
will encourage businesses to expand.
NEEDS gives special support to agriculture, industry, small and medium-scale
enterprises and oil and gas. Under the plan, the government will seek
long-term capital for investment. Trade policy so critical to Nigeria’s
stake in the regional economy modified to unburden business of red tape
complex procedures that hinder it from flourishing. NEEDS envisages forging
stronger links between educational institutions and industry to stimulate
rapid growth and efficient exploitation of resources.
Empowering people: By allowing the private sector to thrive: NEEDS creates
opportunities for employment and wealth creation. lt empowers people to take
advantage of these opportunities by creating a system of incentives that
reward hard work and punish corruption by investing in education, and by
providing special programmes for the most vulnerable members of society.
Promoting private enterprises: The private sector will be the engine of
economic growth under NEEDS. It will be the executor, investor, and manager
of businesses. The government will play the role of enabler, facilitator,
and regulator, helping the private sector grow, create jobs, and generate
wealth. Deregulation and liberalization will diminish governmental control
and attract private sector investment.
Changing the way government does the work: NEEDS aims to restructure the
government to make it smaller, stronger, better skilled, and more efficient
at delivering essential services. It seeks to transform the government from
a haven of corruption to an institution that spurs development and serves
the people.
The number of government jobs will decline, and the cost of running the
government will fall dramatically, as in-kind benefits for civil servants,
such as subsidized housing, transport, and utilities, are monetized. Reforms
and regulations will be implemented to ensure greater transparency and
accountability, and corrupt practices will be outlawed. Government
activities and budgeting will be informed by a framework that connects
policy with government income and expenditure.
Our future, our plan
NEEDS is Nigeria’s development plan, inspired by current challenges for
change and vigorous growth. It identifies the major problems we face today
and suggests how we can begin to solve them over the next four years and
beyond. It sets realistic targets for progress and outlines a way of funding
activities to achieve them.
NEEDS is a development plan that integrates economic development efforts at
the federal, state, and local government levels. It does not confine itself
to specific sectors or limit itself to addressing only the major challenges
identified. Instead, it looks at the big picture, examining how the
challenges identified in each sector affect one another.
The plan enjoys widespread commitment, from the President to village chiefs.
The government has set up a monitoring framework at the federal, state, and
local government levels through commercial enterprises and community-based
organizations. Using this framework, it can check the progress it is making
against the targets set out in NEEDS.
How is this plan different?
NEEDS differs from earlier development plans in three important ways. First,
it really is the peoples plan for prosperity. The process of writing this
NEEDS plan reflects true partnership between the government and the people.
The process began in 2001, when people from all walks of life and all parts
of Nigeria were given the chance to tell the government about their needs
and ambition. Information collected from farmers, labourers, factory owners,
teachers and university profession, community-based organisations, charities
and other stakeholders was used to draft an interim Poverty Reduction
Strategy Paper.
NEEDS builds on the information gathered from that stategy paper. We
continued to consult with stakeholders in preparing the first draft of
NEEDS.
The government circulated the draft NEEDS in 2004, asking the people for
their comments and suggestions. This process gives us confidence that the
final version of NEEDS reflects the true feelings of the Nigerian people
about where the country stands today and how it should device and grow over
the next three years.
Second, NEEDS coordinates action at the federal and state levels. It
connects problems on the ground with programmes of the federal and state
levels. Each state drafts its own SEEDS which identifies priority programmes
for key areas of development.
This connection is critically important when it comes to development
programmes.
For the first time in Nigeria, government and key beneficiaries will work at
the national level to develop sector-wide strategies for key sectors
including agriculture, manufacturing, solid minerals and small and
medium-scale enterprises.The federal government will be able to budget
accurately for development programmes at the national and state levels.
Finally, NEEDS is a feasible plan. The fact that Nigerians have spent so
much time and effort giving their views allowed the drafting committee to
write a plan based on a thorough understanding of what life is like for
people at all levels of society. The targets for progress are realistic ,
not ‘die in the sky’ objectives that will never be achieved. The targets are
achievable, because they were set after taking into account the extent of
the problems, the skills and funds needed to address them, and the amount of
funding and exports that can be mobilized over the next four years and
beyond.
Despite great natural wealth, Nigeria is poor and social development is
limited. If present trends continue, the country is not likely to meet the
Millennium Development Goals.
Three main problems hamper progress:
• Not all our people enjoy the same chance of prosperity
• Past governments in Nigeria, instead of focusing on delivering essential
public services, assumed control of major sources of national income. In the
process, corruption thrived in public service and gained a strong foothold
in society.
• Although the environment for private enterprise is improving, there are
still many challenges.
Poverty and inequality
The plan for prosperity must address a startling paradox: about two-thirds
of the Nigerian people are poor, despite living in a country with vast
potential wealth. Although revenues from crude oil have been increasing over
the past decades, our people have been falling deeper into poverty. In 1960,
an estimated 27 percent of Nigerians lived in poverty. By 1999, about 70
percent of the population had income of less than $1 a day— and the figure
has risen since then. Poverty levels vary across the country, with the
highest proportion of poor people in the Northwest and the lowest in the
Southeast.
Why are so many of our people poor? Poverty is dynamic and has many
dimensions. People may move in and out of poverty as a result of natural
disasters or health problems, lack access to credit, or the lack of natural
resources. Poor people are more likely to live in rural areas, be less
educated, and have larger families than the rest of the population.
Poverty has many causes, all of which reinforce one another. One source of
poverty is the lack of basic services, such as clean water, education, and
health care. Another is lack of assets, such as land, tools, credit, and
supportive networks of friends and family. A third is lack of income,
including food, shelter, clothing, and empowerment (political power,
confidence, dignity). Some of these factors directly affect poverty. Others
contribute indirectly by producing inequality—by stifling the political
power of certain sectors of the population, for example, or denying them
their dignity or human rights. All of these factors are affected by the
environment in which people live. Discrimination on the grounds of gender,
race, disability age, or ill health increase vulnerability to poverty. So do
natural or human-caused shocks—market collapses, conflicts, droughts, or
floods.
The many strands of poverty intertwine and can pull people into a downward
spiral. Because tackling one factor may not be enough to lift a family out
of poverty an effective poverty reduction strategy must attack poverty on
all fronts at the same time. Poverty is not the same as inequality but
solving the problems of inequality can help lift people out of poverty One
of the key ways in which NEEDS is different from previous development plans
is that it relies on a holistic view of the social and economic challenges
facing Nigeria and offers a multi-pronged approach to tackling them. Weak
and inappropriate public sector
Nigeria’s legacy of mismanagement and corrupt governance has encouraged many
people to seek ways of sharing the national cake instead of helping bake it.
By 1999 corruption was practically institutionalized. Government was widely
regarded as a provider of large contracts, distributed by officers in power
to people wealthy enough to buy their influence. This was particularly so in
the case of the oil industry. Over time, the judiciary became intimidated,
as the rich and powertul manipulated laws and regulations to their
advantage. Instead of engaging in productive activities that would help our
economy grow, people chose instead to peddle their influence and position.
The legitimacy and stability of the state suffered, as people began to
devise ways to survive that lay outside the law.
Poor economic management
Perhaps the greatest hindrance to progress has been the boom-and-bust mode
of economic management, encouraged by the dominance of oil in the economy.
Past governments allowed oil income to influence spending: when income was
high, spending was high, while dips in oil prices were treated as temporary.
Together with poor coordination between federal and state governments in
budgeting and expenditure, this practice led to spiralling debt. Today all
tiers of government spend far more than they earn: the deficit for the past
five years alone amounts to more than N1 trillion. With external and
domestic debt of 70 percent of GDP, current revenue is largely eaten up just
by debt service.
Nigeria has one of the weakest economies in the world, and it has lost
decades of development as a result of slow economic growth. Despite oil
export earnings of about $300 billion since the mid-1970s, average income in
2000 20% lower than in 1975.
Despite the mounting burden, past governments did not control public
expenditure. Policies were not coordinated within federal departments or
between federal and state governments. As a result, the national plan and
budget have little relevance today as a guide to funding and implementing
development programmes.
Hostile environment for private sector growth
Over-dependence on oil and traditional sectors such as agriculture and
services, is partly due to the hostile business environment. Businesses
wishing to operate in Nigeria face many constraints including poor
infrastructures, particularly road network and electricity supply,
inadequate physical security, corruption, weak enforcement of contracts, and
the high cost of finance. These factors have deterred foreign enterpreneurs
from investing in Nigeria and induced many Nigerians to take their money and
skills abroad.
How will NEEDS change things
The success of NEEDS rests on three pillars: empowering our people, creating
an environment that enables us to make the most of our natural resources and
flair for business and reforming our laws and the way our government works.
Empowering people
Meeting the needs of our people and nation is the primary aim of the plan
for prosperity. NEEDS insists that every Nigerian has the right to adequate
water and sanitation, nutrition, clothing, shelter, basic education and
health-care as well as physical security and the means of making a living
NEEDS proposes a contract between the Nigerian people and their government
in the form of a social charter, or bargain. This charter recognizes the
people rights to government services that provide basic needs for life. In
return, the people agree to work hard and honestly to make NEEDS a success.
In formalizing the contract between the people and the government, NEEDS
empowers the people to challenge the government if it does not keep its side
of the bargain.
NEEDS recognizes that poverty has many strands and must therefore be tackled
from several different directions at once. It recognizes that the government
must work not only to improve incomes but to tackle the many other social
and political factors that contribute to poverty. These are very difficult
to separate and are therefore often thought of as a bundle of factors that
result in social exclusion. A poorly educated farmer is less likely to know
how to keep his family healthy and less able to find alternative employment.
As a result, he is more vulnerable to external shocks, such as drought or
falling market prices. NEEDS empowers the poor by tackling social exclusion
head on, paying particular attention to generating jobs to improve incomes,
housing, health care, education, political power, and physical security
To improve the lives of the Nigerian people, NEEDS includes plans for
creating jobs, creating affordable housing, improving health care services,
strengthening the skill base, protecting the vulnerable, and promoting peace
and security.
At 5.3 percent, the rate of urbanization in Nigeria is among the highest in
the world. Since manufacturing is stagnant, there are few jobs for the
growing urban population, and urban unemployment is currently estimated at
10.8 percent. The major focus of NEEDS is therefore economic empowerment.
NEEDS policies will create about 7 miflion new jobs by 2007 by making it
easier for private enterprises to thrive, by training people in skills
relevant for the world of work, and by promoting integrated rural
development in collaboration with the states (through their SEEDS
programmes).
Creating affordable housing. Nigeria needs more houses that average
Nigerians can afford. To address the problem, NEEDS will take several steps:
• Make it easier for developers to buy land on which to build affordable
housing.
• Cut the cost of building houses by encouraging the use of local building
materials.
• Train a new generation of architects in designing low-cost housing.
• Enable construction companies and local and state governments to assume
responsibility for providing low-cost housing.
Improving health care services. NEEDS will fully review health care services
in order to design a strong national health system that can deliver
effective, good-quality, and affordable services to all Nigerians. The new
policies will target priority diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis,
HIV/AIDS, and reproductive health-related illnesses. A stronger emphasis on
health education will help make Nigerians more aware of their rights and
obligations regarding health services as well as promote disease prevention.
NEEDS will also prioritize the creation of a National Health Insurance
Scheme and a Blood Transfusion Service. It will support the establishment of
a strong manufacturing base for essential drugs and reagents. Antenatal,
postnatal, and family planning services and outlets will receive targeted
support in order to reduce maternal and infant mortality.
To be continued next week
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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19 2006