Heads of budget and planning in the country have converged in Enugu for their 13th Community of Practice meeting.
Declaring the event open at the Nike Resort, Enugu, Governor of Enugu State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, described the theme of the meeting , ” Beyond Oil: Exploring Potentials in Local Content Initiative Through Enhanced Commercialization
of Indigenous Technologies for Wealth Creation” as apt.
He said that “a learning community and network of practice, such as you had ingeniously forged, invariably , translate into a discourse community for value networking and knowledge transfer among peers and other participants.
Represented by the Deputy Governor, Mrs Cecilia Ezeilo, Ugwuanyi said that “Communities of practice are important academic strategy because they have the potentials to among others capture and share existing knowledge for practice in both improvement and evaluation of best practices as well as generate new knowledge to help practitioners transform the practise to accommodate change the needs and technologies as it’s well known, learning is a part of work. not separate from it.
” Communities of practice enable the integration of work. and learning .
The governor said that they had chosen very topical topics for the meeting. “The recent United Nations reports said that those people living below the poverty line belong to two regions of the world, the Southern Asia and Sub- Saharan Africa with half of the world’s poorest living in the just five countries, India, Nigeria, Ethiopia , Congo and Bangladesh.
He stressed that eradication of poverty in Nigeria demands urgent action on the part of government to revert the situation, exploiting the potentials in Local content development and enhancing the commercialisation of our indigenous technologies and certainly, plays significant roles in accelerating the rate of wealth creation in Nigeria and thus, lifting many Nigerians out of poverty. within the shortest possible time.
“Local content development and its appropriate application to our needs and enhanced commercialisation of indigenous technologies will have the twin effect of import substitution and export promotion.
” Import substitution will help unveil our scares foreign exchange. while Increased export will help the nation earn more foreign exchange
” Your positions as the political heads of budgeting and planning make you arrow heads of poverty eradication in Nigeria. He urged them to use the opportunity to free as many as possible from poverty.
He thanked the minister of state for budget and planning, all members of the community for choosing Enugu State to host the meeting
He hoped that the outcome of the meeting will impact positively on the economy of the state and the national economy.
The Permanent Secretary, federal Ministry of Finance, and budget, Rev. Olushola Idowu, said that aim of the 13th meeting of Communities of practice was for the community members to brainstorm and learn from one another. The meeting will enable participants explore potentials on local contents and come up with recommendations that will enhance the development of indigenous technology for wealth creation
In his keynote address, the Minister of State for Finance, Budget and National Planning, , Prince Clem Agba , who attended the meeting virtually, said that the meeting was for members to deliberate and learn from one another .
He said the story of the community is the story of local content initiative for economic growth.
According to him, the government passed into law, the Nigerian local content Act to accelerate local content and economic growth,
Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Enugu State. Dr David Ugwunta, in an interview , said CoP is a forum of heads of budget and planning within the country under an umbrella to share ideas and experiences.
“It is also believe that if all the states are doing well economy of the country will be doing well. This is the 13Th Community of Practice meeting in Enugu. He said that the National body approached Enugu to host and the governor accepted.
The commissioner said that when he assumed office in 2019, he attended the first CoP in Edo state and knew what others are doing in their budgeting, and evaluation. “The governor asked me to go to Lagos and Kaduna and see what they are doing, and it has really helped me to see what others are doing and that is why we are here”, he said.
Ugwunta said that” Enugu State is doing well in terms of open government in budgetary process . We asked citizens what they want in their budget. We did that last year and met with the people “.
Anambra State Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Mark Okoye, commended the organisers of the ” meeting of the Community of Practice of the 36 states held in the South East. He said that it is well attended. Fifteen states were in attendance, others attended virtually. We have to discuss certain things, how states have boosted their individual activities.
“In Anambra State, we created “Domestic Direct Investment identifying those capital individuals, get them to invest in the State. We have the ANSEPA and some other programs like the agricultural development, recycling of waste to wealth. technological advancements to boost the State ‘s economy.
On his part, the Ebonyi State Commissioner, Orlando Nweze, said that in Ebonyi, they have different innovations like recycling waste into wealth.
Goodwill messages were delivered by the Commissioner for Finance , Mrs Adaona Uyanwune and the representative of the Federal Reform manager, FCDO-PERL Mrs Chioma Itodo.
They urged the Commissioners to “Take full advantage of the platform, inter-state visits, plan for continuity and involve their permanent secretaries, directors as much as possible as the learning stays within the system. “
