Co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, has criticized the Federal Government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), saying it does not reflect people’s needs.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed over $1.6 billion with the Foundation’s biggest office in Africa located in Nigeria.
The Foundation, which is committed to making lives better for poor people globally, is also planning to increase its commitments to Nigeria, Gates said.
Gates stated this at the expended National Economic Council on Investment in Human Capital, presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, at the State House Conference Center, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
While submitting that investment in infrastructure and competitiveness must go hand in hand with investments in people to anchor the economy over the long term, Gates noted that Nigeria’s approach places more priority on physical capital over human capital development.
The Nigerian government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan identifies investing in our people as one of three strategic objectives.
But the “execution priorities” don’t fully reflect people’s needs, prioritizing physical capital over human capital,” Gates said.
Gates urged Nigeria “to face the facts so that you can make progress”
He said that the country would thrive better with strong investments in health and education, rather than concentrating on physical infrastructure, to the detriments of human capital development.
Even though the World Bank’s World Development Report shows a direct link between the level of education and improvements in employment, productivity and wages, Nigeria’s case shows that half of country’s children cannot read and write, noted Gates at the event themed “Role of Human Capital Investment in Supporting Pro-Poor and Economic Growth Agenda”.
Gates, who said he does not enjoy “speaking bluntly” to Nigeria when the people had been “so gracious enough “to invite him, however, hinted that statistical data show the country “still looks like a low-income country.”
He said he was encouraged to be blunt by Aliko Dangote’s frank approach to “stressing the importance of accurate data.”
Taking a comparative analysis of data to back his arguments, he described Nigeria as “one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth,” with “one in three Nigerian children, chronically malnourished”.
Nigeria, he said, has the fourth worst maternal mortality rate in the world, only ahead of Sierra Leone, Central African Republic and Chad.
“In upper middle-income countries, the average life expectancy is 75 years. In lower middle-income countries, it’s 68, in low- income countries, it’s 62. In Nigeria, it is lower still, just 53 years,” he stated.
Gates, however, sees the country thriving if it is ready to invest in health, education and human capital, “if you don’t, however, then it is very important to recognize that there will be a sharp limit on how much the country can grow,” he warned.
Gates, who sees Nigeria as having “unmatched economic potential,” assured that his Foundation was eager to support the government to make “Nigeria a powerhouse that provides opportunities for all its citizens.”
Citing the gains Nigeria has recorded in the immunization against polio, the billionaire urged Nigeria to pursue human capital development with the same vigor to achieve the desired results.
The Chairman, Dangote Foundation, Aliko Dangote, in his opening remarks, said for Nigeria to truly compete globally, we must prioritize investments in the health, education and opportunity of our people alongside other critical areas like infrastructure. Together, these are the inputs that will make Nigeria richer.
Osinbajo, in his response again said that high oil prices and economic growth of previous years had failed to translate into a better life for most Nigerians.
According to him, ‘grand corruption’ prevented investments in healthcare and education and infrastructure, and shamelessly robbed government policies of most, if not all, of their intended impact.
Osinbajo however, assured that the Muhammadu Buhari administration was determined to rewrite the Nigerian story for the better.
“To put Nigeria’s money to work for Nigerians, doing the most with the least. And we have stayed true to that vision, even as oil prices went into freefall, we ramped up investments in infrastructure, as well as our social spending,” the Vice President said.
He reiterated that not only is the administration aware of the issues facing the country, it is prepared to take the challenges the Dangote Foundation as well as Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have outlined head-on. “And we have no choice, because the problem literally grows daily.”
The Vice President noted that Nigeria has strong economic growth and development ambitions, encapsulated in her Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, launched in 2017.
He, however, stressed that all of those lofty ambitions can only be achieved through the determined application of human skill and effort.
“And for that effort to be meaningful and productive it has to come from people who are healthy, educated, and who are, and feel, empowered.
“It is this realisation that has helped ensure that one of the primary planks of the ERGP is ‘Investing in our people’. And it is for this reason that we are expanding the reach and quality of our healthcare, through the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS); and working to guarantee basic education for all persons, whilst also upgrading and modernising the quality of secondary and post-secondary education.
“And because this is the 21st century, we know that is also important to ensure that our young people are being prepared for the economies of the future, not the past. This means that STEM education is critical, and that technology must lie at the heart of every one of our educational offerings.”
Osinbajo said the Social Investment Programme launched in 2016 – comprising a jobs scheme for unemployed graduates, a feeding programme for public primary school pupils, a micro-credit scheme for small businesses, and a cash transfer scheme for our poorest and most vulnerable households – is a key component of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.
He said the school feeding programme, for instance, is aimed at “our achieving better health, nutritional and educational outcomes for Nigerian children.”
The programme, which he said has increased enrollment by 30 percent, currently serves over 7 million school children, across 22 of Nigeria’s 36 states, and continues to grow as more states sign up for it.
“Apart from the health outcomes – children free from malnutrition and stunting – there are also important educational and economic benefits as well. By guaranteeing one hot meal a day to these children, the scheme has pushed school enrollment rates upwards in many of the communities in which it is being implemented,” he said.