Nahimat Adekoga
The United Nations Development Programme has expressed concern over the possibility of Nigeria achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in the face of dwindling budgetary resources.
Leader of the Inclusive Growth Unit of the UNDP, Dr. Robert Asogwa, made this known during a news briefing in Enugu on Tuesday.
Asogwa, who was in Enugu to attend a donor conference, wondered how African countries could achieve the goals with the economic downturn in the continent.
According to him, “Many governments cannot attain the SDGs except they think of alternative option and innovative modules of financing them.
“The donor conference in Enugu is necessary but may not be sufficient for the state to achieve its four-point agenda and the global Agenda 2030 as well as the African Agenda 2063.”
Asogwa said that Nigeria needed alternative innovative financing modules for its development programmes, reiterating that Nigeria should explore all available development options and not limit itself in the context of North-South partnerships.
The team leader said that UNDP was committed to assisting the country in achieving its development agenda and recently evolved another framework to that effect.
Asogwa said: “For us in UNDP, we are responding to these needs of government to finance the Nigerian agenda and African agenda by developing what we call United Nations Development Assistance Framework.
“This is a medium-term support strategy for 2018 to 2020 where 28 UN technical support organisations will assist federal and state governments to be able to address their challenges.”
