The United Nations (UN) yesterday stated that Nigeria is currently not on track to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The area of concern includes social protection for the vulnerable, especially women and children.
The United Nations Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, Matthias Schmale, who made this known during the Africa Social Impact Summit organised by Sterling One Foundation alongside other partners, called for concerted efforts to meet the country’s development aspirations.
He said: “The theme of this summit is “Rethink, Rebuild, Recover — Accelerating Growth for the SDGs.” This is apt after a difficult couple of years for Nigeria, Africa and the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As Africa’s largest country by population and size of economy, Nigeria is important to the success of the 2030 Agenda, on this continent and globally.
“As it stands, Nigeria is unfortunately not on track to reach many of its SDGs by 2030, a situation compounded by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The same is true across many African countries.
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“Within the UN, we would argue that inclusive social impact can only be achieved through the right mix of economic growth, social protection and an environment conducive that includes basic health and education services.”
According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Sterling One Foundation, Olapeju Ibekwe, before 2030, we have a lot to do and this summit is to drive regional inclusive conversations, and dialogues and bring together key policymakers, stakeholders, private and public sector for us to come up with a new path for us to ensure that we can accelerate these goals, leveraging innovation, digitisation, collaboration and partnerships.”
The Board member of Sterling One Foundation and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sterling Bank, Abubakar Suleiman, said: “When we look at the available resources in the world to solve problems, in most parts of the world, and certainly in Africa, less than 20 per cent of those resources will ever pass through the government. And today, impact investors and non-governmental organisations control less than five per cent. Until we can bring the 75 per cent to the table, we will continue to struggle to get the kind of impact we want.”