The Federal Government, yesterday, said that the domestic economic performance has improved, to the extent that it is now ranking 39th among the leading economies in the world.
Inaugurating the Central Working Committee on the review of the implementation of the 1st National Implementation Plan (NIP) for the Vision 20-2020 in Abuja, the Minister of National Planning, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman, explained that the development showed clearly that the ongoing Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government, particularly its three-phased National Implementation Plan components, is achieving the desired results.
With the new ranking, the minister projected that the performance would get better if the ongoing GDP rebasing exercise is concluded.
The minister described the work of the committee as crucial to government's efforts to reposition the nation's economy as one of the biggest globally by 2020 and therefore assured them of necessary support that would help them accomplish their assignment.
Usman said: "What gets measured is done. By setting a target and measuring the progress that we are making we are more likely to achieve, not just sitting back. Like I used to say during the opening exercise, we may wake up by 2020 if we don't do anything systematic and find out that we are now number 50 from 44.
"But from the way we are tracking and really pushing, we are already.
"I think, unfortunately the Statistician General is out of the country but is represented and I have not cross-checked with the latest GDP growth rate, but the last time I checked, we have actually climbed to about 39 from the 44 we have been.
"So you can see we are making progress there in terms of GDP Per Capital and we are going to make another big progress when the GDP rebasing figures come out."
According to him, the first NIP, which commenced in 2010, is scheduled for completion next year and it provides a strong foundation for the implementation of subsequent plans in the next eight years.
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