NATIONAL ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY (NEEDS) AND HER CONTRIBUTION TO POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN NIGERIA

   INTRODUCTION

The National Economic Empowerment and Development strategy (NEEDS) is the response to the development challenges of Nigeria. In 1999, most people grossly underestimated the extent of social, political, and economic decay of the country. Since 1999, Nigeria has succeeded in stabilizing the polity, consolidated the democratic governance structure and made modest progress in the social and economic spheres. Over the next four years (2003-2007) NEEDs will consolidate the achievements of the previous four years and lay a solid foundation for sustainable poverty reduction, employment generation, wealth creation, and value re-orientation.

However, NEEDs as a home-grown reform programme, has for the first time embarked on an extensive consultative and participatory process, involving major stakeholders in the design of NEEDs to ensure the sustainability of NEEDs beyond 2007 and to improve the living standard of Nigerians, generate income and provide food security for the teeming Nigerian population as aimed in the Obasanjo reforms of cassava initiative:¹

NEEDS PROMOTING PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

NEEDs proposes private sector to become Nigeria’s engine room of growth, its motor needs to be primed.’ Thus, the government has to make certain fundamental changes to create an environment in which business will thrive, in the language of economists, it has to create a macro-economic frame work, a kind of over arching, national house keeping budget that will ensure that Nigeria makes the most of what it earns as a nation, that it spends only what it can afford and that all levels of government used the same budget.

However, as asserted by president Olusegun Obansanjo “in my dream I see a new Nigeria in the hands of God. As I traverse all parts of Nigeria, I feel a New Nigeria emerging.” ² This was at a National Planning Commission forum in 2004. The government therefore needs to develop infrastructure, particularly power generation, transport and telecommunications infrastructure to stimulate growth of the private sector.

      NEEDS MAINTAINING THE ENVIRONMENT

Nigeria is endowed with a rich and diverse natural environment but over the years it has reaped its riches with insufficient cares for the livelihoods and well being of future generations. Thus, NEEDs will address several areas of concern:

·                    Waste production and disposal

·                    Deforestation

·                    Conservation of unique habitats

·                    Pollution and other problems ³

However, NEEDs aims to turn this bleak picture around by establishing a regulatory agency to enforce environmental law, monitor industry compliance laws, conduct environmental audits and impact assessments and set standard as expatiated by Oche.⁴

As further asserted by theorist of policy analysis according to Oche no meaningful theory can be acceptable and thoroughly studied without giving due attention to the environment within which it takes place^.5Thus, NEEDs seeks to develop a private public sector partnership scheme to address the increasing problems of waste management.

            NEEDS IMPROVING INFASTRUCTURE

NEEDs reforms in the transport sector aim to complete the 3,000 kilometer network of roads and strengthen the Roads Maintenance Agency, which oversees the repair and rehabilitation of some 500 roads in Nigeria. The government aims to develop the country’s sea ports to handle modern shipping activities, upgrade the railway and achieve total radar coverage of Nigeria airspace.⁶

Power alone accounted for over 5 percent of new business start up cost, therefore simply providing more reliable power could triple the amount Nigerian Industries produce by 2007. Thus, under NEEDs, the National Electric Power Authority, a government enterprise will be unbundled into distinct business units which will eventually be privatized.⁷

Many people in Nigeria spend upward of 3 hours daily collecting water for domestic use, therefore providing them with safe water that can offer than the chance to use those hours in more economically productive activities, will be one of NEEDs aims to increase access to safe drinking water for at least 60 percent of the population.⁸

            NEEDS IMPROVING AGRICULTURE

Agriculture has suffered from years of mismanagement, inconsistence and poorly conceived government policies and the lack of basic infrastructure. Still, the sector accounts for over 26.8% of Nigeria’s GDP.⁹ Agriculture is Nigeria’s second largest source of national wealth, after crude oil. NEEDs will promote the cultivation of improved, higher yielding crop varieties and provide extra support to Agricultural Research and Training, NEEDs aims to encourage business interests to provide credit and supply and distribute agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and machinery. Silo complexes will be refurbished to increase the capacity of the food reserve programme and move close to food security.¹⁰

2.6      NEEDS PROMOTING INDUSTRY

            Despite the fact that available data indicate a decline in poverty incidence from 66.5 percent to 54.4 percent as indicated by an NBS 2005 assessment, NEEDs proposes developing the industrial sector by relying more on local resources and less on imports, it will be guided by a local research and development strategy that seeks to promote science and technology based on small and medium size enterprise.¹¹ These enterprise will be developed in science and technology labs and technological incubation centres. They will focus on food processing, industrial chemicals, information and communication technologies, biotechnology, electronics, and space technology, energy, oil and gas.¹²

            A major policy thrust of NEEDs is the idea that Nigeria should stop squandering its natural resources by selling them as crude products. The more this product can be processed within Nigeria, the more jobs they will create and the more export earning they will generate. NEEDs is setting ambitions targets for the sector: 7 percent annual growth, 70 percent capacity utilization and 70 percent of investment made by the private sector by 2007.¹³