The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo on Monday said Nigeria is committed to realising the Sustainable Development Goals also known as the United Nations’ Agenda 2030.
He also assured of the country’s commitment to a similar initiative by the African Union, called the AU Agenda 2063.
Osinbajo highlighted the various policy initiatives of the Federal Government aimed at achieving the SDGs and ameliorating the negative impact of coronavirus on the nation’s economy and the populace.
Represented by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, he spoke in Abuja at the African Union continental capacity-building workshop on Africa’s voluntary national reviews for the 2022 high level political forum and domestication of agenda 2063.
The event was jointly hosted by the Office of the Special Assistant to the President on SDG led by Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, and the Nigerian office of the African Union Development Agency, New Partnership for African Development and African Peer Review Mechanism led by Princess Gloria Akobundu.
Osinbajo said that to achieve the SDGs and its effective implementation, “Nigeria has established six SDGs innovation hubs, one in each geo-political zone; this provides an opportunity for states to leverage and dialogue with all relevant stakeholders to accelerate innovative solutions, prioritising social protection as a tool to overcome the bottlenecks and expanding financing options to accelerate the achievement of SDGs in Nigeria.
“Permit me to let you know that since the adoption of the AU Agenda 2063 and the UN Agenda 2030, the Nigerian government has embarked upon a process of domesticating these agendas at the national and sub-national levels.
“Interestingly, the new National Development Plan 2021-2025 has strategies that aim at achieving the targets set under each of the goals in both agendas while the capacities of policy makers are being strengthened to ensure their implementation in an integrated and coherent manner in order to facilitate an inclusive implementation processes across all relevant sectors.”
According to him, the genesis of Agenda 2063 was the realisation by African leaders that there was a need to refocus and reprioritise Africa’s agenda from the struggle against apartheid and the attainment of political independence for the continent.
He added that Agenda 2063 was equally an arrangement that prioritised inclusive social and economic development, continental and regional integration, democratic governance, peace and security among other issues.
“The objective of which is to reposition Africa to becoming a dominant player in the global arena,” the vice president said..
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