The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) has unveiled a national template for advancing its commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals and the nation’s development aspirations.
According to Nairametrics, Buhari while launching the Nigeria Integrated National Financing Framework Report on Sustainable Development stated that achieving the SDGs will mean ending poverty and hunger, safeguarding the Nigerian ecosystem and the planet and ensuring the people live in peace and prosperity by the year 2030.
The report was launched on the margins of the 77th United Nations General Assembly in New York, the United States of America, on Friday.
Buhari also claimed that by 2030, achieving the SDGs would mean ensuring that everyone lived in peace and prosperity throughout Nigeria and all of Africa, as well as eradicating poverty and hunger.
He said, “It is pertinent to state that achieving inclusive, broad-based and sustainable development is a cardinal objective of our administration.
“It is for this purpose that the Federal Government of Nigeria established a number of ambitious programmes in an attempt to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs in Nigeria.
“The Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs has continued to provide technical leadership in the operations of the SDGs at all levels of governance in Nigeria.”
“Today’s event marks the end of a long process which began in 2020, when the Steering Committee and the Core Working Group on Nigeria’s Integrated National Financing Framework were inaugurated.
”The Integrated National Financing Framework has been developed to map out a much-needed sustainable financing plan for Nigeria to deliver on our commitment to the SDGs and our National Development aspirations,” he added.
Despite the difficulties the nation has faced, he pointed out that all of the country’s development plans and programs are in line with the SDG and are therefore poised to boost the economy.
Buhari said that despite difficulties brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the sharp decline in crude oil prices, Nigeria has remained steadfast in its sincere desire to maintain and expand the economy.
“The 2017-2020 Economic Recovery and Growth Plan; the 2020 Economic Sustainability Plan; the 2021 National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy; and the 2021-2025 National Development Plan are all aligned with the SDGs.
“It is in line with this commitment and with a focus on the National Development Plan (2021-2025) that the Federal Government of Nigeria, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme, has adopted the NIFF as a tool to improve SDGs financing.
”This is without increasing public debt and contingent liabilities to levels that will be detrimental to economic sustainability.”
It was also disclosed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, that Nigeria became the “first country in the Global South to have successfully completed a Country-led Independent Evaluation of SDG-3 on ‘quality health and well-being for all’ and SDG-4 on ‘qualitative and inclusive education and lifelong learning for all”.
