Development partners contributed $5.5b to Nigeria's economic growth since 2011 – NPC

The National Planning Commission on Thursday said that development partners contributed 5.51 billion dollars (N855.4 billion) to support Nigeria's development efforts in 2011.

This is contained in the “2012 Performance Report on the Nigerian Economy'' issued by the commission in Abuja.

“The last official statistics on grant was reported in 2011. The report reveals that there are currently 18 major development partners supporting Nigeria's development effort.

“Out of the figure, seven are from the UN system, '' the report said.

It said a commitment of 5.51 billion dollars (N855.4 billion) was made during the review period.

“On the basis of the mid-term assessment of the first National Implementation Plan (1st NIP) of the Nigeria's vision 20:2020, the aggregate disbursement of development assistance to Nigeria stood at 2.76 billion dollars.

“This represents a disbursement of rate of 50.09 per cent or 0.004 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP),'' the report stated.

It also said that the human capital development sector accounted for 82.02 per cent while governance sector recorded 8.84 per cent during the period.

The report said the donors' intervention in the real/productive sector accounted for 4.57 per cent while physical infrastructure sector recorded 1.43 per cent.

It said 22 sectors benefited from the donors' support between 2010 and 2011, adding that there was a significant increase in 11 sectors as recorded in the 1st NIP of the vision 20:2020.

“The donors committed 29.5 million dollars to Agriculture and Rural Development sector while the Youth Development sector accounted for 11.8 million dollars,'' the report said.

It noted that most development partners contributed significantly to agriculture, health and governance.

“Overall assessment of disbursements, however, indicates that Nigeria is not an aid dependent economy.

“This given that the aid to GDP ratio was 0.004 per cent per annum during the review period,'' the report said.