Successful macroeconomic management for sustainable development has eluded Nigeria and many other developing countries over the years. This is to buttress the fact that the availability of resources, though necessary for economic development, does not constitute a sufficient condition for national development. The quality of economic management and governance matters a lot. Governance refers to the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country’s economic and social resources for development. It is characterized by accountability, transparency, consistency, openness, adherence to the rule of law, among others. It includes institutional and structural arrangements, decision-making processes, policy formulation, and implementation capacity, development of personnel, information flow and the nature and style of leadership within a political system. Public resources are likely to be misused and misappropriated without good governance. Hence, sustainable development requires good policies and effective provision of institutions conducive to good governance.
The focus of the government is currently on the implementation of Vision 20:2020. The centrality of the PRSD in implementing Vision 20:2020 becomes evident when viewed against the background of its expected roles. The main functions of the PRSD – development of plans, monitoring and evaluation of plan implementation, research into their respective sectors and into the internal organization and operational modalities of their ministries, and the continual collection and processing of data and statistics – suggest that the PRSD is the fulcrum of the economic policy making process. The PRSD thus needs to take its rightful place in the scheme of things and begin to perform the functions assigned to it.