‘There’s A Lot To Be Done To Create Awareness On SDG-Enabling Investments In Nigeria’

Nneka Eze, partner and director of Dalberg while discussing exploring opportunities in Social Development Goal-enabling investments in Nigeria said there’s a lot that needs to be done within a short period of time.

Eze was one of the panelists at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) SDGs impact assessment dialogue on harnessing public-private sector partnerships to accelerate the Social Development Goals (SDGs) in Nigeria held on Thursday on Channels Television.

While reacting to figures of out-of-school pupils and people living in poverty in Nigeria, Eze said the country is off-track in achieving some of the SDG goals.

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“We are very much off-track (in my perspective) in terms of achieving the majority of the goals. The number of out-of-school children in Nigeria is much. In the world, we have a large number of poor people living in abject poverty. So, there is a lot of work to be done.

“The recent projects that we have seen highlighted some of the challenges with peace and institutions,” she said.

Eze also notes that COVID-19 was a wake-up call that helped Nigeria to focus on these challenges.

“In a way maybe COVID-19 was the shock that we need to help really focus on these issues. COVID-19 pandemic helped us to spotlight some of these challenges that already exist in Nigeria,” she added.

Speaking concerning the role of the Nigerian Government in accelerating SDG she said, although the country is just coming out of recession the government needs the private sector as well and also, “there is a lot of work to be done and the timeline is short.”