The document provides an outline for strategic planning for economic development in Nigeria's North East region. It discusses the necessity of economic development and the role of strategic planning in outlining steps, promoting efficient use of resources, and building consensus. Guidelines are proposed for new comprehensive economic development strategies that emphasize process, flexibility, and outcomes. Relationship building and capacity development across government, private, and nonprofit sectors are also emphasized. The implementation plan and conclusion stress monitoring progress and adjusting the strategy based on evaluations to effectively achieve economic development goals for the region.

1. STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
North East Region of Nigeria

2. Outline
•
•
•
•
•
The Necessity for Economic Development
The Role of Strategic Planning
The North East Context
Features of Economic Development
Guideline on Economic Development
Programme
• Implementation Plan
• Conclusion

3. The Necessity for Economic
Development
• Setting up an Overall Economic Development
Program is geared towards contributing to
– The effective local economic development in distressed
areas of our society
– By establishing a locally based, regional planning process.
• The process will encourage the local community
–
–
–
–
To think strategically about itself,
Its assets and liabilities,
Where it wants to go, and
What steps it must take to get there.

4. The Role of Strategic Planning 1/2
Time spent in developing an economic development strategy
will pay big dividends because it will:
• Outline The Steps to Follow
– Economic development does not just happen. It requires the
community to identify a number of intermediate steps to reach
its final goals.
• Promote Efficient Use of Scarce Resources
– A significant amount of money, time, and people will be
required for economic development efforts and the limited
resources available must not be wasted. The plan will provide
rationale for resource allocation.
• Improve Coordination
– Many programs, activities, groups, and individuals will be
involved in the development effort and it is important that they
not overlap or conflict. The plan will serve as a vehicle for
communicating development activities.

5. The Role of Strategic Planning 2/2
• Build consensus.
– The public and the private sector must agree on the major issues
involved. This will lead to support in implementing the plan.
• Increase public awareness.
– Without public support, economic development cannot happen. It
is important that the public know how development occurs and
how it affects the community.
• Strengthen the community’s competitive position.
– A community with a strategy will not only be inherently more likely
to succeed, it will appear more attractive to potential business or
industry than a community without a plan.
• Encourage forward-thinking.
– The strategy will encourage community leaders to think about the
future and to not overlook opportunities for development as they
arise.

6. The North East Context 1/3
•
North East comprises of Taraba, Yobe, Gombe, Borno, Bauchi and
Adamawa states.
• Population
Percentage of North East Geopolitical Zone Population
STATE
POPULATION
%
Adamawa State
3,168,101
2.263
Bauchi State
4,676,465
3.340
Borno State
4,151,193
2.965
Gombe State
2,353,879
1.681
Yobe State
2,321,591
1.658
Taraba State
2,300,736
1.643
TOTAL
18,961,965.00
13.55

7. The North East Context 2/3
• 70 to 90 percent of the working-age demographic is
engaged in subsistence farming or other agriculture-related
activities.
• With the relatively lower rainfall, vast areas of grassland
are used to support livestock (e.g. cattle, sheep, and goats),
and one of the largest cattle markets in West Africa is
found in Potiskum, Yobe State.
• In addition, a wide variety of crops (such as potatoes,
sugar cane, wheat, groundnuts, millet, sorghum and
cowpeas, cotton, yam, groundnut, tobacco, maize, beans,
guinea corn, millet, ginger, rice, cassava, ginger, vegetables,
mango, cashew, guava, pawpaw) are grown in this region

8. The North East Context 3/3
• Minerals found in these regions include salt, clay, serpentine,
asbestos, amethyst, kyannite, gold and graphite, rutile, sand,
granite rocks, asbestos, gold, uranium, nickel, chromite,
tourmaline, amethyst, marl stones, potash, iron ore, copper,
white quartz, chamovite, limestone , and antimony.
• The region supports vibrant leather works, weaving, dyeing and
other forms of textiles, carpets, calabash designs, etc

9. The north east context
SECURITY CHALLENGE
• The terrorist attacks launched on some states in the
North by a group referred to as the Boko Haram, are
having a negative impact on business and economic
activites of the region.
• This has posed a lot of challenges on marketing of
agricultural produce and other forms of business
activities in the region .
• The incessant attacks have also created fear and
anxiety in many farmers and potential business
partners and investors around the region

10. Features of Economic Development
• Guidelines: Propose a new set of Comprehensive
Economic Development Strategy guidelines.
• Relationships: Stresses the need for regional and local
authorities to make the strategic planning process more
inclusive, seeking greater collaboration with other federal
agencies, state governments, and the private sector.
• Capacity Building: Recommends ways in which investment
in planners at the regional and state level can lead to the
necessary system and practice improvements to ensure
that strategic planning for economic development is indeed
more consequential.

11. Features of Economic Development
JOB CREATION
• Job creation is the main objective of economic development.
• There is a difference between creating job and creating better
jobs.
• Job creation is a quality issue not merely a quantity issue.
• Jobs ‘’created’’ should support a desired standard of living,
offer sustainability and decent working conditions, and
provide opportunity for advancement.
• The goal of job creation is not the job per se rather it is to
boost local income.

12. Features of Economic Development
JOB RETENTION
• It is important to retain as well as create jobs because a job
lost means the loss of the economic advantages that resulted
from that position.
• Job retention and business assistance go hand-in-hand. When
businesses are assisted and encouraged to stay in the
community, the existing job base remains intact.
• Most net new job creation will come from existing business
within a community and, they are therefore a critical focus for
local economic development efforts and programs.

13. Features of Economic Development
TAX BASE ENHANCEMENT
• This enables state government to support local services
and pursue other activities without having to raise taxes.
QUALITY OF LIFE
• This is represented by many factors including safety,
education quality and opportunity, poverty reduction,
environmental quality, and cultural and recreational
amenities.
• It is what makes living, working, and conducting business
in a community worthwhile.
• Conversely, detractors from the quality of life in a place,
crime, for example, often deserve attention by economic
developers and the region.

14. Guideline on Economic Development
Programme 1/2
• There are 3 sets of global recommendations
designed to stimulate the effect of strategic
planning for economic development;
Guidelines, Relationships, and Capacity
Building.
• Guidelines: Propose a new set of
Comprehensive Economic Development
Strategy guidelines.

15. Guideline on Economic Development
Programme 2/2
• Relationships: Stresses the need for regional and local
to make the strategic planning process more inclusive,
seeking greater collaboration with federal agencies,
state governments, and the private sector.
• Capacity Building: Recommends ways in which
investment in planners at the regional and state level
can lead to the necessary system and practice
improvements to ensure that strategic planning for
economic development is indeed more consequential.

16. GUIDELINES
Proposing a new set of Comprehensive Economic
Development Strategy Guidelines “Simplify and clarify…, do
not lose the inherent flexibility of the existing process (if
any), remove all unnecessary requirements, but be clear
about expectations and outcomes.”
•
•
•
•
•
•
Key elements of new guidelines:
Putting up an outstanding “process and plan”
A single set of appropriate guidelines
Consolidation of reporting to one annual report
Introduction of performance measures
A good communications strategy

17. RELATIONSHIPS
• For strategic economic development planning to be
effective in the North East region, engagement of the
private and nonprofit sectors and all levels of government
is critical.
• Planning cannot be undertaken in a vacuum or behind
closed doors among “professionals.” Here will we discuss
about the essential relationships that have to be formed
between federal, state, and local agencies with the private
sector.
• An initiative to explore opportunities for greater
integration of local and regional planning requirements
imposed by federal and state departments/agencies must
be taken.

18. RELATIONSHIPS
• Active engagement of the private sector—forprofit businesses, labor unions, and nonprofit
organizations is the central component of the
strategic planning process.
• There is the need to promote private sector
participation through outreach to national
representative business and labor
organizations.

19. CAPACITY BUILDING
• Challenges in terms of complexity, resources, and expertise
are inevitable. To ensure that these challenges do not
become insuperable obstacles, there has to be investment in
building the human capacity of the region.
• The goal of capacity building is to tackle problems related to
policy and methods of development, while considering the
potential, limits and needs of the people of the region.
Capacity building takes place on
– Individual level
– Institutional level
– Societal level.

20. INDIVIDUAL LEVEL
• Capacity-building on an individual level
requires the development of conditions that
allow individual to build and enhance existing
knowledge and skills.
• It also calls for the establishment of
conditions that will allow individuals to
engage in the “process of learning and
adapting to change.”

21. INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL
• Capacity building on an institutional level
involves aiding pre-existing institutions in the
region.
• It will not involve creating new institutions,
rather modernizing existing institutions and
supporting them in forming sound policies,
organizational structures, and effective methods
of management and revenue control.

22. SOCIETAL LEVEL
• Capacity building at the societal level will support
the establishment of a more “interactive public
administration that learns equally from its
actions and from feedback it receives from the
population at large.”
• Capacity building must be used to develop public
administrators that are responsive and
accountable as regards economic development
of the region

23. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN 1/2
Four main steps have been identified as pivotal in
gaining an executive group’s commitment to
Economic Development Program. These are:
• Education on sound Economic Development
Programs.
• Gaining Executive Consensus.
• Formation of an Executive steering committee.
• Development of Initial Plan of Action.

24. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN 2/2
• These steps are essential in the implementation process
of Economic Development program.
• Management will not only understand what Economic
Development is and what it involves but at the same
time builds internal commitment through exposure to
and participation in Economic Development process
itself.

25. CONCLUSION
• A comprehensive economic development strategy emerges from
continuous, broad based planning process for tackling the
economic problems of North East region.
• The strategy will promote economic development opportunity,
foster effective transportation access, enhance and protect the
environment and balance resources through sound management of
development.
• For the purposes of this proposal, the term “region” refers to areas
that have been defined economically, environmentally, or
geographically as appropriate units for addressing economic
development and related challenges.
• The strategy proposal is as short and easily accessible as possible.
Decision makers, and business investors will be able to use it as a
guide to understanding the economy of the North East region and
how to take action to improve it.

26. Strategic Planning

27. Outline
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Introduction
What is strategic planning?
Steps of strategic planning
Strategic planning process
Organising for Economic Development Planning
Benefits of strategic planning
Common problems with the Strategic Planning
Process
• Monitoring and Evaluation

28. What is Strategic Planning? 1/2
• Strategic planning is a process in which a
community can look at its current situation
and compare that situation to where it would
like to be in a certain matter of time.
• In the context of Economic Development,
communities can use strategic planning to
envision their future and take the appropriate
steps, given the local resources, to achieve
that future.

29. What is strategic planning? 2/2
Economic Development strategic planning involves:
• A realistic appraisal of available resources, constraints,
and opportunities
• The development of achievable goals
• The formation and implementation of project action
to reach those goals
*One of the most important tools that economic
development organisations can use for effective
development is strategic planning.

30. Steps of strategic planning 1/2
Public and/or private
organisations use
strategic planning at the local or regional
level. The time for each step of strategic plan
look as follows:
• Pre-planning Phase
– 1 month: Meet with the stakeholders and ask
what they want out of the planning process
– 3-5 months: Assessment of the local economy
– 4-6 months: Analysis of the information collected

31. Steps of strategic planning 2/2
• Planning Phase
– 2 months: Draw up the economic development
agenda
• Post Planning Phase
– 1 month: Review the strategic plan with the
community, finalise it, and prepare for
implementation

32. Strategic Planning Process 1/2
• Pre-planning
• Assessing the local community and economic
competitiveness
• Formulating realistic goals, objectives, and
strategies
• Identifying, evaluating, and prioritising projects
• Developing plans of action
• Implementing those plans
• Monitoring and evaluating outcomes
• Retooling and adjusting

33. Steps of strategic planning 2/2
All of the “steps” presented are part of a continuing cycle in which goals are recommended

34. Organising for Economic Development
Planning
• Convening individuals responsible for guiding the
design of the strategic planning process
• Identifying
stakeholders
and
defining
their
participation in the process
• Selecting an organisational arrangement for the
strategic planning process
• Specifying and scheduling activities for carrying out the
different components of the strategic plan
• Developing a public involvement programme
• Determining the technical and financial support
needed for the strategic planning process

35. Benefits of strategic planning 1/2
• It helps a community’s future – strategic planning
helps communities steer their economic development
to effectively realize their long-range economic
development goals.
• It provides a structure for mutually accepted goals and
a common agenda
• It defines the purpose of the community group – it lays
out clearly and succinctly for all to see, what the plan
is, to make sure there are no misunderstandings, and
that all players are focused on the same end goals
• It balances community goals with realistic local
resources

36. Benefits of strategic planning 2/2
• A well thought out economic development plan based on
current and historic data on the local economy will provide
information for development projects and policies, as well
as in forecasting future economic growth
• Based on the information gathered in the economy
analysis, an economic development practitioner will better
plan and set goals and objectives that are attainable
• Strategic planning calls for community involvement for
creative and practical process involving stakeholders
(public, private and civic leaders) in formulating and
facilitating economic development goals, strategies and
programmes

37. Common problems with the Strategic
Planning Process
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Failure to involve a broadly representative cross-section of the leadership
Not involving the general public in meaningful ways
A misunderstanding of the strategic planning process, resulting in
inadequate or inappropriate design
Too much time and effort spent on visioning
No clear identification of priority issues (needs, concerns, problems,
opportunities)
Wish list of action items that do not effectively address the key problems
Failure to assign action to appropriate organisations for implementation
No means for evaluating performance and progress so the process can be
appropriately adjusted
Lack of commitment to keep the process going beyond the initial effor

38. Monitoring and Evaluation
Monitoring and Evaluation activities help
to:
– Ensure that the projects are effective and
on track
– Justify the costs involved
– Determine if adjustments need to be made
– Enable the promotion of project success

39. Monitoring and Evaluation
Objectives of Monitoring and Evaluation
– Promote efficient and effective implementation and
operation of the strategic plan and individual project
– Ensure that strategic planning goals and objectives are
met
– Helps minimise delays through the early detection of
problems
– Serves as a feedback system for solving problems during
the implementation stage and ensuring that objectives are
met
– Can even lead to a revision of the objectives themselves if,
during the project implementation, such objectives are
found to be unrealistic or impractical

40. Monitoring and Evaluation
• Monitoring and Evaluation are related but
distinct activities.
• Monitoring tracks performance or outcomes,
while
• Evaluation compares outcomes to specific
benchmarks and to the plan as a whole
• However, Monitoring is essential for carrying
out the evaluation of projects

41. Thank You