Nigerian Government Reacts to Bill Gates’ Criticism of Economic Plan

Nigerian Government Reacts to Bill Gates’ Criticism of Economic Plan

The federal government says human capital development is a priority in its economic blueprint, in response to comments made by Bill Gates during this week’s expanded national economic council meeting in Abuja.

Mr Gates, co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, had faulted the administration of Muhammadu Buhari on its economic blueprint, saying it laid little emphasis on human capital development.

But the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, in a statement signed by Akpandem James, his media aide, said capital allocations to human capital has increased under Buhari, TheCable writes.

“To demonstrate the commitment of the government to improving human capital development at the national level, the federal government has made significant increases in capital allocations in human capital related sectors in the last three years in spite of dwindling revenues,” the minister said.

“In addition, the current administration has launched a wide-ranging Social Investment Programme which caters for human development for which a total budgetary allocation of N500 billion has been provided in the 2016 and 2017 budgets as well as the 2018 budget proposals.”

“A close reading of his statement shows that the point Mr. Gates was making was that the human capital development should have been explicitly indicated as part of the execution priorities of the ERGP. This is not the same as saying that the ERGP does not address human capital development.”