By ABUBAKAR YUSUF

For Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Nigeria, preparation for the yearly programme of the United Nations General Assembly 77th UNGA, was a serious business, not different from other arrangements in the last seven years, in view of its relevance to the development of SDGs, not only in Nigeria, but across the globe.

To the SDGs Presidential aide, it was business unusual this year, as it was an opportunity for her to consolidate on the activities of SDGs domesticated in Nigeria through her voluminous reports that bordered on the mainstream activities for consecutive seven years, and the decade of action 2020-2030 agenda.

In line with the UN SDGs and its goals, the SDGs guru had prepared an elaborate and extensive framework that would provide not only funding but a sustained policy and financial muscles at the federal, sub-nationals and local government areas, in partnership with critical stakeholders, the Private Advisory Group (PSAG), Civil Society Organisations (CSO's), International Organisations and Development Partners, among many others, to solidify its continuous operation in Nigeria.

The event which began in the early September 2022 did not only included the usual attendance alone by the SDGs top echelon, but this time around the launching and adoption of Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) geared towards institutionalizing SDGs across all strata with logistics and funding as the basis of its operations and not barriers .

For SDGs in Nigeria, it was a fulfillment of not only a global template, but a higher ladder of moving the developing countries like Nigeria at par with other developed countries, in line with goals of the global outfit.

Therefore, the over two weeks program was climaxed with the launching of the INFF by Nigeria's President, Muhammadu Buhari, alongside other world leaders on the 24th September, 2022, with wholehearted and visible happiness and sense of fulfillment with the global program and the handlers in Nigeria.

The SDGs in Nigeria and it's handlers under Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire have demonstrated not only astuteness in its administration, but passion to extricate hapless Nigerians from the shackles of underdevelopment, poverty and diseases towards resolving the 2020-2030 agenda.

In his speech at the global occasion and launching, President Muhammadu Buhari said Nigeria adopted the Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) as a tool to improve the financing of SDGs without increasing public debt and contingent liabilities to levels that will be detrimental to economic sustainability.

The President who spoke while delivering his keynote address at strategic High Level Event held on the sidelines of the 77th session of United Nations General Assembly in New York when it launched Nigeria’s INFF for Sustainable Development.

He commended the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning; the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals; and the United Nation Development Programme for working together to develop Nigeria’s INFF in a process which started in 2020.

"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 (INFF) 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,” the President said.

He further noted that as part of its commitment to sustainable and inclusive development, his administration aligned its 2017-2020 Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP); the 2020 Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP); the 2021 National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy (NPRGS); and the 2021-2025 National Development Plan (NDP) 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 (UNDP), has adopted the INFF as a tool to improve SDGs financing without increasing public debt and contingent liabilities to levels that will be detrimental to economic sustainability.

“The INFF is backed by Nigeria’s Medium-Term Revenue Strategy and the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework. As Nigeria champions the INFF process, we hope to promote the strategic alignment of financial policies with sustainable development and provide the enabling conditions for domestic and international, public, and private financial actors to best respond to our national needs

“I urge all Nigerians, the international community, and our development partners to recognize the importance of this integrated approach to financing development, as you continue to count on my leadership in its immediate implementation,” the President said.

Speaking earlier at the global occasion, Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, the Senior Special Assistant to The President on SDGs, described the launch of the INFF report as a significant milestone in the commitment and efforts to achieve the SDGs in Nigeria.

She noted that the INFF is in line with Nigeria’s strategic approach to the implementation of the SDGs working at the National and Sub-national levels.

“At the National level, we work closely with the Federal Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to integrate the SDGs into their sectoral policies and plans.

“At the Sub-national level, we are working closely with the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to mainstream the SDGs into their medium and long-term development policies and plans”

She noted that her Office, with the support of UNDP, also supported 16 states to develop SDG-Based Development Plans as part of Nigeria’s Mainstreaming, Acceleration and Policy Support (MAPS) for the Agenda.

The INFF report, she added, was also another feat recorded by the country in the bid to institutionalize the SDGs, noting Nigeria was 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.’

The global event which attracted the UN top echelon, international communities and bodies, as well as development partners lauded Nigeria's SDGs handlers for a distinct template towards solidifying and institutionalizing SDGs in Nigeria.

Expressing his confidence in the SSA-SDGs, President Muhammadu Buhari, on the 11th of October, 2022, conferred one of the highest national honours on her presidential aide as the Officer the Federal Republic (OFR) as a mark of recognition for her gratitude, commitment, dedication to duty and loyalty to constituted authority through hard work, transparency and accountability.

•Yusuf writes from Abuja and can be reached on yus.abubakar3@gmail.com.

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