Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020

This Plan provides details of the current economic situation that underscore the scale of the challenge and
the urgency of the actions required. It lays out stable and coherent macroeconomic policies to restore
Nigeria to growth, and outlines the sectors that the Federal Government will prioritize because of their
potential to drive growth and contribute to GDP growth, their ability to respond strongly to stimulus, the
flexibility of their production methods and their capacity to innovate and generate large-scale
employment.
First-class infrastructure and an economic environment that supports the private sector and enables it to
expand, take risk and employ people are essential to achieve Nigeria’s aspirations for a dynamic,
competitive economy. The ERGP’s proposed strategies include improving the national infrastructure
backbone (power, roads, railways, airports and seaports) and reducing the transaction cost of doing
business by streamlining processes and speed of delivery in the regulatory environment. The ERGP lays
out programmes and policies to achieve the Federal Government’s objective of reducing poverty and
enabling all areas of society to benefit from available economic opportunities. This requires a healthy,
educated citizenry able to establish businesses that create jobs, a hardworking and productive workforce,
and Government policies to tackle poverty, hunger and inequality.
Finally, the Plan articulates how the Federal Government will combat corruption, promote good
governance, ensure security and reform the public service, and deliver, monitor, evaluate and
communicate the progress against the plan.
1.1 RATIONALE FOR THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY AND GROWTH PLAN
After more than a decade of steady progress, economic growth has slowed because of both external and
internal challenges. Externally, the global economy has remained fragile and flat since the onset of the
global financial and economic crisis in 2008. With the slowing of growth in China, commodity prices have
declined sharply with oil prices plummeting from as high as USD114 per barrel to as low as USD28 per
barrel between 2014 and 2016. This has had a severe negative impact on the growth rate of Nigeria’s
economy, which recovered slightly immediately after the global crisis but fell back sharply again in
tandem with crude oil prices (Figure 1.1).
Figure 1.1: Real GDP Growth Rate, 2005-2016
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