Importance Of Development Planning

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PRE-INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPMENT PLANNING INTRODUCTION Successive governments in Nigeria have adopted development plans as appropriate strategy to address development challenges in the country. Tordoff (1993) observes that there is a general consensus that the instrument of both diagnosis and remedy to development is the “development plan” In the same vein Adedeji (1989) opines that the economic aspirations of Nigeria since independence are perhaps best exemplified by her various development plans. Since the past four decades, Nigeria has embarked on series of development plans to fasten the rate of economic growth and improve the standard of living of the people. It is noteworthy that Nigeria has gone through four national development plans in her post-independence history, (the fifth National Development Plan did not materialize). These plans are: First National Development Plan (1962), the Second National Development Plan (1970-74), Third National Development Plan (1975-80), and Fourth National Development Plan 1981-85. Apart from the five year National Development Plans, the Federal Government has also embarked on three year rolling plans between 1990 and 1998 and long term perspective planning in her endless efforts to search for appropriate developmental strategy. The federal government introduced another ambitious programme between 2003 and 2007 known as the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS). Conceptualising Development Planning