Kwara To Spend N4.7trn On  10-Year Development Plan 

Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq  says Kwara state would spend N4.7trillion on a 10-year sustainable development plan

Speaking at its launch,the governor explained that  the plan is a demonstration of the bright future that the administration pursues for Kwara which is premised  on four pillars of governance and institutional reforms, economic development, social development, and infrastructural development.

He  said the SDP comprises in clear terms,the state’s plan for education, healthcare, security architecture, transport system, rural-urban development, waste management, youth engagements and women empowerment, safety nets, climate change and other environmental issues.

He said:“In January this year, we unveiled a five-year agricultural transformation plan which revolves around our comparative advantage as a state with vast arable land. That agribusiness plan was the first of its kind in our state in many years. However, it was just a standalone, one-sector-specific plan.Today, we are launching a 10-year sustainable development plan (SDP: 2021-2030) upon which hangs everything we need to do to place Kwara on the path of inclusive and sustainable growth,” he said.

“Kwara State had its first development plan in 1970 and it ran for five years. The second development plan ran between 1975 and 1980. This Sustainable Development Plan is the third of such comprehensive Kwara-specific blueprint which plans for the future of the state. The SDP draws from extensive bottom-up consultations with stakeholders. It is anchored on four core pillars: governance and institutional reforms; economic development; social development; and infrastructural development.

“The plan is estimated to gulp N4.7tr between now and 2030 — a long-term investment that is necessary for sustainable growth. The funding will come from public and private sector sources.

“The cross-cutting linkages of the sectors remain an important feature of the plan beginning with the robust sector diagnostic report and the practice-based results monitoring framework.

“The plan has been drawn with full involvement of the bureaucracy and various stakeholders. It also aligns with various high-level policy parameters such as Nigeria’s Sustainability Plan, the African Union Agenda 2063 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

“Our choice of a 10-year horizon is intentional. Despite its attention to local realities, it serves to benchmark and converge with the UN-SDGs as far as possible, given the 2030 close-out year for both policy instruments,” he said.

In his  remarks,Minister of State for Budget and National Planning Prince Clem Ikanade Agba,said the Kwara plan aligns with the national strategy to tackle various developmental challenges and commended the state government for being one of the few states to have come up with such a robust roadmap.

He  said the five-year national development plan (2021-2025) would require about N350tr to execute.

He said: “I am pleased to note that Kwara State has indeed become one of the first States to do this as the Plan being launched today is sufficiently aligned with the National Development Plan, 2021-2025 and indeed Nigeria Agenda 2050. The Kwara State Sustainable Development Plan, just like the National Development Plan, focuses on developing critical infrastructure, strengthening institutions of governance, developing human capital, addressing security challenges and leveraging on the power of the private sector as pivot of development.