Finance Minister Meets Foreign Donors, Soon

The new Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, says she will soon convene a meeting with all the foreign donors in Nigeria to alert them on what the country actually needs.
Ahmed said this during a maiden meeting with directors and heads of units of the ministry in Abuja on Monday.
According to the minister, the ministry will give direction to international donors on what the needs of the country are.
The minister added henceforth, no foreign donor should design a programme in the name of assisting the country.
Ahmed also directed her team at Budget and National Planning to initiate another planning programme for the country as vision 2020 programme would soon elapse.
She urged the relevant stakeholders to consult widely and come up with a national planning programme that could be run between 10 and 15 years.
She said a lot of tasks had been given to the ministry by the president, adding that the ministry has a short time to delivery in all the mandates.
The minister said that 2020 budget must be ready in September according to the directive of the president.
She also charged the management staff and other personnel in the ministry to work for increase in revenue of the country.
She said that there was need to increase revenue performance from 55 per cent in 2018 to 85 per cent.
Ahmed charged the directors and unit heads to ensure that workers under them perform their duties diligently.