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November 16, 2017<\/p>\n
The Federal Government of Nigeria has hired some private consultants from Malaysia to help the Federal Ministry of Budget and Planning set up 3 focused labs in Nigeria at a hiring cost of N458 million ($1.5 million).<\/p>\n
The Minister of Budget and Planning, Udoma Udoma, said the setting up of the labs is part of the FGN\u2019s implementation strategy for the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).<\/p>\n
Mr. Udoma said he presented a memo to that regard at Wednesday\u2019s meeting of the Federal Executive Council, FEC which was approved by the FEC.<\/p>\n
The 3 labs will include \u2013 one in agriculture and transportation, one in power and gas and one in manufacturing and processing.<\/p>\n
Mr. Udoma also said the cost covers about three months while the duration of the lab is expected to last a minimum of 13 weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will cover three phases: pre- lab activities for four weeks; phase two, conduction of the labs themselves for six weeks; and phase three, post lab activities for three weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd for each lab you will have at least a 100 people from a cross section of the public and private sectors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The minister said the consultant is just for the pilot phase of the programme after which Nigerians will take over.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will help us and bring their international connections, reach and give it credibility. It is for $500,000 per lab,\u201d Mr. Udoma said.<\/p>\n
He also said the key objectives of the labs are to identify all relevant key players from the public and private sector that are crucial in the delivery and implementation of the ERGP initiative \u201cso as to create ownership early on in the development process.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the labs will review and re-evaluate the ERGP and sectoral plans against set targets and progress and will also identify gaps in the current eco system and the key success factors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will further deliver detailed three phase line by line implementation activities. We will identify entry point of projects, we will identify key performance indicators, breaking down silos and encourage key players.<\/p>\n
\u201dThe minister said the focus of the lab is to mobilise private sector investment to finance specific capital projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you know public resources are limited, so these labs will bring in private sector players.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will look at the various areas including infrastructure, manufacturing and bring them in and mobilise private sector financing and resources for the labs.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what council has approved today is that we bring in some consultants who did a similar thing in Malaysia to try to help us build our own capacity, they will just help us at the beginning and after that we will take over and do it ourselves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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November 16, 2017 The Federal Government of Nigeria has hired some private consultants from Malaysia to help the Federal Ministry of Budget and Planning set up 3 focused labs in Nigeria at a hiring cost of N458 million ($1.5 million). The Minister of Budget and Planning, Udoma Udoma, said the setting up of the labs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n