…to lift 50m out of poverty, cut taxes
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, will 12pm today in Yola, Adamawa State unveil his plans to Nigerians.
According to the Atiku Abubakar policy document seen by The Cable, the 71-year-old via a combination of policies, promised to lift 50 million Nigerians out of poverty, by 2025, cut corporate income tax to one of the lowest in Africa, while also providing three million jobs per year.
The policy document was put together with a major delivery timeline of 2019 to 2025.
“Poverty does not simply have one solution; rather it requires the concerted application of many solutions,” Atiku said.
According to him, Nigeria has vast natural resources, but our challenge remains harnessing these resources for the greatest good.
He added that there are plans to embark on partial privatisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and to sell all four national refineries.
Atiku also plans to raise the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by almost 90 per cent to $900 billion by 2025.
“The state’s critical policy priority is to build a broad based, dynamic and competitive economy with a GDP of US$900 billion by 2025,” the policy document read.
The former customs boss also proposes to raise foreign direct investment (FDI) to 2.5 per cent of GDP.
“Working towards achieving the LOWEST corporate income tax rate in Africa; Strengthening the credit guarantee initiatives of Infra-Credit by substantially increasing its capital base; Lower transaction costs: capital gains taxes etc.”
Other items on Atiku’s plan include; building 5,000 kilometres of roads, and 5,000 kilometres of modern railway.
The plan is built on four cardinal points: jobs, infrastructure, poverty eradication, and human capital development.
The Atiku policy document also seeks to “improve spending efficiency of the federal government and drastically reduce the share of recurrent revenue in the budget from 70% to 35% by 2025”.
According the document, Atiku also seeks to implement the petroleum industry bill, ensure Nigeria refines over one million barrels of oil per day, and generate 20,000 megawatts of power by 2025.
