National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (Needs) and Grassroots Development in Nigeria

Abstract

The Nigerian economy has faced daunting challenges in her quest for robust growth and economic development with the result that the country faces a threat of not being able to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS), if major steps are not taken. Official
statistics indicated that unemployment was still high at more than 10.8 percent in 2003–2006. The GDP growth rate of about 5.6 percent which is lower than the minimum standard of 5.0 percent required in preventing poverty from worsening, and the 7.00 percent needed to
meet the MDGS target for poverty and hunger. Rural development is a major yardstick for measuring development in a society. Against this background, the need to embark upon a strategic economic reform programme, became imperative. Consequently, a committee of 35
Nigerians drawn from public and private sectors as well as the civil society was set up by the federal government in 2003 to put together an economic reform programme, christened the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS) aimed at developing
the grassroots for meaningful development. This paper examined the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS) and rural development in Nigeria. It observed that NEEDS has not helped in rural development and recommends re-strategizing to address the rural development quagmire in Nigeria.