‘Promoting Sustainable Growth and Inclusive Development of Nigeria’s States’
Presentation on: UN’s Support for Equitable and Sustainable Growth in Nigeria: Emerging Results and Roadmap for the Future.
Ms Fatma Samoura
UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative
Mr. Chairman, let me begin by thanking you for inviting me to this important dialogue session on ‘Promoting Sustainable Growth and Inclusive Development of Nigeria’s States’.
Let me also congratulate you and all the members of the ‘Forum for Inclusive Nigerian Growth (FIND) for taking the initiative of promoting the generation and sharing of ideas on the diversification of Nigeria’s economy and government revenue sources “beyond oil”.
For me, it is nice to be back in this lovely city of Lagos, a city that has registered tremendous growth in the recent past, and together with Kinshasa, is now well poised to be classified as a mega city in the not-so-distant future.
This dialogue session is being held at a time when the whole nation is waiting, with bated breath, the conclusion of the budget making process and subsequent implementation of key development programmes.
The session is also being held at a time when the country is readying itself to host a major ‘Economic Summit’ and has begun, in earnest, to put in place structures, mechanisms and strategies for the mainstreaming of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the national and sub-national policies, plans and implementation frameworks, such as the annual budgets.
Mr. Chairman, the coming weeks and months hold great promise for the people of this great nation, but only if action is taken now and importantly if we adopt a business unusual approach to doing the business of development.
Mr. Chairman, since independence in 1960, Nigeria’s overarching developmental goal has been to achieve rapid economic growth; improve material prosperity; and promote peace, harmony and social progress.
