 Honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to join you at this 19th meeting of the National Council on Development Planning. Its timing is particularly appropriate, especially as we are at the cusp of articulating and adopting a long-term national vision and a new medium-term development plan to succeed the economic recovery and growth plan. I'd like to thank the Honourable Minister of Finance, the Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning as well as the Honourable Minister of State and the good people of the FCT for the hospitality and support extended towards the successful hosting of this meeting. I also again commend the Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, the Honourable Minister of State for Budget and National Planning and all the Commissioners for Budget and National for Budget and Economic Planning and Commissioners of Finance who are here today for having supported, for having surmounted all odds and courageously participating in this crucial meeting today. The theme of this year's conference, National Development Planning in Nigeria, Issues and Challenges, is quite apt and timely. It is timely because it affords us the opportunity to exchange views on our success on national vision and medium-term plan as they are being finalized. The theme is also apt because it sets the scene for discussions on key issues of national planning, such as finding the right balance of state-market relations, promoting economic diversification, managing distributional outcomes and addressing the challenge of implementation, promoting better coordination between and within the various tiers of government and securing the resources needed to achieve our developmental aspirations. It is common knowledge that there was an era in which we abandoned national planning in the belief that the market mechanism was sufficient and adequate to bring about desired economic development. But it became evident, especially after our experience of structural adjustment programs, that such an approach was not very helpful for attaining sustained growth and development. The example of emerging economies that have been more successful in the recent past showed that the state had played a key role in providing vision, in mobilizing resources, mitigating risk, and providing macroeconomic stability while encouraging the private sector to play a leading role in economic activity. This is a balance that we have to find, not just for reasons of efficient delivery, but also in order to mobilize the resources required to underpin national development. It is generally agreed that the primary purpose of planning in our economy is to accelerate growth and development outcomes that will improve the lives of our people. To be meaningful, our planning processes must lead to tangible outcomes in the form of growth that exceeds population growth. Real growth in the sense of growth that creates jobs and creates opportunities. For instance, GDP growth prior to COVID-19 was around 2.2%, which is less than the 2% growth in population. But more importantly, growth must create jobs, it must create opportunities, it must create circumstances for the well-being of the people. Other priorities for planning would usually include structural transformation of the economy, especially in our case, from low-value adding activities to high-value adding activities, increased job opportunities for our massive youth population. Also important is the provision of high-quality health and educational facilities and a peaceful and secure environment that would support economic activity. Indeed, our plans must bring about an economy and society that works for all Nigerians. An aspect of national planning that we very frequently overlook is how to manage distributional outcomes in a rapidly changing economic environment. The point is readily understood if we recall that the strength of feeling on issues like the national minimum wage or indeed the deregulation of PMS prices is related to their expected impact on the poorer segments of society. An economic change takes place. Just as economic change takes place, there are likely to be winners and losers. For example, the loss of jobs caused by the replacement of bank tellers with ATMs. These kinds of changes in the marketplace very frequently give rise to loss of jobs and our planning must take into account some of what leads to these sorts of changes and loss of opportunities and perhaps even the creation of other opportunities. So it's important when drawing up national plans to take account of the interests of the more vulnerable members of society, especially as according to the MBS, over 40 percent of our population live below the poverty line. This is why social investment and social protection are at the heart of the Buhari administration's policy interventions. Indeed, top of mind for Mr. President is how to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in this decade as we radically re-engineer the productive base of our economy in agriculture, in manufacturing, mining, and the digital and creative sectors. Implementation remains the Achilles heel of our planning efforts. Sometimes the implementation failures are due to resource and capacity constraints, but we must also ponder on the possibility that our plans might in some cases be unrealistic or not grounded in objective reality. In other words, is a lack of implementation due to the fact that our visions and plans have been unduly fanciful? Plans, of course, should be uplifting, ambitious, but they shouldn't make provision for overcoming resource and capacity constraints as well. Consideration should be given in this regard to scaling up the capacities for planning at the federal and state levels through training and professionalization of the planning cadres in the various ministries. Another make-or-break issue for planning is coordination. There's a well-known challenge of that the experts will describe as inter-temporal coordination in which, for example, infrastructure has to be built simultaneously to enable productive and profitable investments to be made. The classic example in this regard is the link between, say, for example, the building of steel factories and the construction of railway lines at the same time to ever create the heavy produce. There's also the challenge of coordination between the various levels of government in a federation, such as Nigeria, where the intentions of the federal and state governments would need to be aligned to maximize impact and prevent duplication and waste. It's also essential for us to pay close attention to structures and mechanisms for promoting coordination within levels of government. Another matter of interest in national planning is how to make our plans flexible enough to accommodate changing domestic and international conditions. This is particularly important because there are major changes taking place all around us at such breakneck speed that sometimes we really have to, we really must wonder how we're going to cope with some of these changes. Mass migration, for example, health pandemics such as the one that we're currently experiencing, the fourth industrial revolution, climate change, and all its various implications. In our original context, there is the advent of the African continent of free trade area. If this point was not clear before experience of COVID-19, it has become abundantly so now. We must plan in such a way as to be able to respond speedily to unforeseen shocks from within and outside the domestic economy. Our evolving vision and plans must accordingly be drawn up to enable us as a nation respond to changing conditions. Our national plans must also address the very important issues of resource mobilization. And this bears quite a bit of emphasis. There's no way we are going to be able to realize our aspirations without raising the resources needed for investment in production and infrastructure as well as the provision of social services and social protection. Domestic resource mobilization, especially through improved tax administration and the blocking of revenue leakages, must now be at the front and center of our fiscal concerns. But perhaps more important is realizing that governments simply cannot muster all the resources that the economy requires. The biggest player will always be the private sector. Planning must therefore focus on creating the right circumstances for local and foreign investment and their participation in the economy. So improving internally generated revenue while not stifling business, especially small businesses, is a balance that must be at the heart of policy development, planning and regulation. This would mean, for example, solving the nuisance of multiple taxes and sometimes multiple enforcement agencies reported by businesses in many states of the Federation, including the FCT. The consensus reached by governors under the auspices of the National Economic Council to reduce and limit the right of way charges for the laying of broadband infrastructure is an excellent example of how states can prioritize development and eventually make more money, eventually mobilize more resources if we keep our focus on the big picture. So permit me to summarize in seven critical points. One, our national plans must be inclusive and promote high growth and economic diversification. Two, they must promote coordination between the various tiers of government as well as coordination between ministries, departments and agencies at all levels. Three, our plans must also be modern and ambitious and yet realistic and flexible enough to absorb shocks and adapt to swiftly changing domestic and international conditions. They must, in the same vein, our plans must accelerate domestic resource mobilization and build capacities for planning, implementation and must create the best possible environment for the private sector to invest and operate. Five, at the core of thinking in our planning must be the aggressive incremental eradication of poverty and the creation of wealth and good paying jobs. Our planning must be capable of meeting the aspirations and opportunities for a huge and growing youth population. Finally, I thank the Organizing Committee, consisting of the officials of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, the FCC and other key stakeholders for the very hard work of organizing this important conference through the years. The outcomes and recommendations would be of immense importance to the ongoing medium term development plans, the MTDNP 2021 to 2025 and Agenda 2050. I also look forward to the formal presentation of the report of this meeting to the National Economic Council. Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my single honour and pleasure to formally declare open the 19th session of the National Council on Development Planning and CDP. Thank you very much for your kind attention.