Governors, UNDP Move To Bridge States’ Infrastructure, Funding Gaps

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) person agreed to deepen collaboration connected innovative financing and concern reforms to code infrastructure and backing gaps successful Nigeria’s 36 states.

This followed a high-level gathering held astatine the NGF Secretariat successful Abuja betwixt the forum’s enactment and a UNDP delegation led by Ms Elsie G. Attafuah, the UNDP nonmigratory typical successful Nigeria and Dr. Raymond Gilpin, the main economist for Africa and caput of the UNDP Economists’ Network.

The discussions focused connected processing caller models to fortify fiscal capableness astatine the authorities level, pull backstage superior and unlock sustainable investments successful captious sectors specified arsenic infrastructure, agriculture, vigor transition, acquisition and healthcare.

At the meeting, NGF director-general Dr. Abdulateef Shittu described the engagement arsenic “a timely measurement toward deepening Nigeria’s subnational improvement agenda,” adding that the collaboration aligns with the forum’s extremity of empowering states to pull and prolong investments independently.

“We worth UNDP’s concern successful helping states go much competitory and investment-ready,” Shittu said.

“Our extremity is to make a pathway wherever subnational governments tin attract, negociate and prolong investments that straight interaction lives and livelihoods.”

In a statement, the NGF spokesman, Yunusa Abdullahi, cited the forum’s caller motorboat of Investopedia—a integer concern quality level aggregating implicit 269 investment-ready projects crossed the 36 states—as grounds of states’ increasing readiness to pb the country’s improvement translation erstwhile fixed the close tools and partnerships.

Shittu noted that the adjacent signifier of collaboration with the UNDP would absorption connected 3 cardinal priorities: strengthening fiscal and organization capableness astatine the authorities level; processing frameworks for blended and innovative financing, and gathering a pipeline of bankable projects aligned with nationalist and planetary sustainability goals.

“We spot this concern arsenic catalytic,” helium said. “With UNDP’s method enactment and the Forum’s coordination structure, subnational governments tin go cardinal drivers of Nigeria’s improvement narrative.”

In his remarks, Dr. Raymond Gilpin commended the NGF’s enactment for creating platforms that link states with planetary investors, describing the Forum’s efforts arsenic “a applicable measurement toward transforming section economies.”

“Nigeria’s states are indispensable gathering blocks of nationalist development,” Dr. Gilpin said. “Our relation astatine UNDP is to enactment the Forum successful strengthening the systems that marque investments viable—from fiscal governance and information analytics to quality superior and organization efficiency.”

He explained that the concern would absorption connected creating sustainable financing mechanisms that blend nationalist and backstage capital, ensuring inclusivity, transparency, and semipermanent growth.

Also, Ms. Elsie G. Attafuah described the engagement arsenic a continuation of UNDP’s long-standing concern with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum aimed astatine accelerating inclusive and equitable growth.

“Our collaboration with the NGF represents a strategical concern to guarantee that nary authorities is near down successful Nigeria’s improvement story,” she said.