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Tag: NEPAD

  • NEPAD canvasses stronger private sector push for Africa’s growth

    NEPAD canvasses stronger private sector push for Africa’s growth

    The Chairman of the NEPAD Business Group Nigeria (NBGN), Bashorun J. K. Randle, has reaffirmed the pivotal role of the private sector in driving Africa’s transformation under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), ahead of a high-level business forum scheduled for Thursday, October 30, 2025, at Eko Hotels & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.

    Themed: “Mobilising Africa’s Private Sector for AfCFTA towards Africa’s Economic Development Amid Global Uncertainty,” the event will bring together leading voices from government, business, and development circles to explore how private sector innovation and investment can accelerate intra-African trade and industrial competitiveness.

    Speaking ahead of the Forum, Randle emphasised that unlocking the continent’s full economic potential hinges on the active participation of private enterprises.

    He said: “The private sector remains the engine of Africa’s transformation. Through this Forum, we aim to build actionable strategies that will strengthen Africa’s economic resilience, promote cross-border trade, and ensure inclusive prosperity for all.”

    Read Also: NEPAD Group hosts forum on AfCFTA

    According to NBGN, the Forum will serve as a platform to promote partnerships and facilitate practical dialogue on the private sector’s role in achieving sustainable and inclusive economic growth across Africa. Discussions will focus on “policy alignment, trade facilitation, investment promotion, value-chain development, and industrial cooperation” among African economies.

    The event is expected to attract participants from federal and subnational government ministries, departments, and agencies, as well as financial institutions, regional economic communities, chambers of commerce, business associations, development partners, and captains of industry from across the continent.

    Organisers said the outcomes of the Forum would inform policy formulation and implementation frameworks designed to enhance regional trade integration and support Nigeria’s long-term development goals. The deliberations are also expected to contribute to the realization of Nigeria’s Agenda 2050, the African Union’s Agenda 2063 (The Africa We Want), and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

    The NEPAD Business Group Nigeria (NBGN) is a private sector-led platform dedicated to advancing the objectives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). 

    The Group works to promote sustainable economic growth, regional integration, and public-private partnerships across Africa. It serves as a bridge between government, business, and development partners, driving investment, trade, and industrialisation initiatives that align with Africa’s long-term development agenda.

  • First Lady’s initiative partners NEPAD for growth

    First Lady’s initiative partners NEPAD for growth

    • 200 students get vocational scholarship

    Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI)  of First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, and African Union Development Agency (AUDA), formerly New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), is set to give scholarship to 200 Nigerian students at African School of Economics (ASE).

    A statement by her spokesperson, Busola Kukoyi, said this was announced during a visit of NEPAD’s National Coordinator, Gloria Akobundu, and Director of Communications at ASE, Obinna Obiwulu, to First Lady in Abuja.

    Hailing the partnership, Senator Tinubu described the scholarship as opportunity Nigerian students need to have entrepreneurial education.

    She noted many youths wait for white collar jobs after tertiary education only to discover  such jobs are unvailable.

    “In the developed world, if you are not innovative, you will become jobless. So, to have a school where entrepreneurship is being driven is well thought out and commendable of the founder of Princeton University,” she said.

    Read Also: Insurgency killed 35,000 persons in Northeast, says UNHCR

    Akobundu noted NEPAD partnership focuses on sectors, in line with its objectives to drive women empowerment.

    She said NEPAD is known for partnering public and private sectors for governance, development and economic growth.

    These, she noted, are parts of the focus that attracted the agency to work with RHI.

    According to her, NEPAD was a pledge by African leaders based on a common vision to eradicate poverty.

    “In line with our mandate, AUDA-NEPAD, in partnership with ASE on development, economic and resource mobilisation, is offering scholarships to 200 children, captioned: Senator Remi Tinubu’s Scholarship Fund, in partnership with Renewed Hope Initiative.

    “The project is designed to provide access to the highest global standards of tertiary education to young Nigerians,” Akobundu said.

    Information and National Orientation Minister, Mohammed Malagi, has said information on activities and intervention by the initiative will enjoy wider coverage.

    The move, he said, is meant to capture more women and vulnerable groups targeted by the initiative.

    He announced this when he visited the First Lady in Abuja.

    Malagi noted RHI’s programmes complement the agenda of President Bola Tinubu and deserve support.

  • NEPAD empowers 800 persons in Imo

    NEPAD empowers 800 persons in Imo

    The New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) said empowerment of over 800 women and youths in Imo will eradicate poverty and improve the living standard of the people.

    Its National Coordinator, Mrs Gloria Akobundu, made the observation at the opening of a four-day Capacity Building Workshop on Modern Farming Techniques organised for women and youths in Owerri yesterday.

    She said the gesture was in line with the Federal Government’s commitment to alleviate poverty and unemployment, especially among people living in the rural areas.

    Akobundu said the participants, drawn from the 27 local government areas of Imo, would be exposed to modern agricultural techniques to enhance food sufficiency and turn around economic fortunes of citizens.

    She said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had set machinery in motion to empower vulnerable persons across the nation as a way of fighting insecurity and corruption in the society.

    She said the aim of NEPAD, and other international bodies were to place African countries on the path of sustainable growth and development, eradicate poverty and halt marginalisation of African continent in the global space.

    Akobundu said NEPAD was also to enhance African skills and integration in the global economy as well as accelerate empowerment of women and youths.

    She said that agriculture had become an important sector of the nation’s economy, contributing 40 per cent to her economy and 27 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

    “Agriculture is a catalyst for the economic development of any nation and it serves as a veritable means of reducing poverty and increasing food production,” she said.

  • NEPAD identifies six areas for foreign investors

    New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) has identified six investment opportunities which the agency is wooing foreign investors to participate.

    Its National Coordinator/Chief Executive Officer, , Princess Gloria Akobundu made this known in an interview to celebrate her one year in office.

    Akobundu said the unnamed foreign investors have agreed to invest in the areas NEPAD presented to them.

    She said: “We have about six investment opportunities which we gave to investors and they have agreed to invest in those areas.

    “We have identified these investors and taken them to the relevant ministries to collaborate with them in line with their own mandate for development.

    “We are bringing them to the table in line with job creation of Mr. President.

    “So, our mandate is to facilitate, create awareness and sensitise investors on the abundance resources in the country.”

    According to her, NEPAD is working with Ondo State government to revive moribund industries in the state.

    “Also, we have identified some investors, who are ready to revive moribund industries in Ondo State, and we are working to achieve that in collaboration with Ondo State Government.

    “Besides, we monitor to see those investments see the light of the day and that our people benefit from the jobs that will be created and economic growth,” she said.

    She also said NEPAD would implement 15 programmes in 2018, in line with the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) of the Federal Government.

    Akobundu urged the governments at all levels to increase developmental projects in the country.

    “We must increase our developmental projects across the communities. Take it local government, rural dwellers must get involved in government by giving them the opportunities and empowerment that will allow them to be able to take care of themselves.

    “That will help development, increase job creation and that will engage the minds of the youths positively,” she added.

    She added that the organization is interested on how to create jobs and how to put food on the table of a common man.

    “Simply, we promote livelihood; NEPAD is about the economy, which is development of the people and governance,” she added.

  • NEPAD to bridge Africa’s $68b infrastructure gap

    •Launches 5% Agenda initiative

    The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) has launched its five per cent agenda campaign for infrastructure financing in Africa. The aim is to close Africa’s huge infrastructure financing gap put at $68 billion.

    The campaign highlights that only a collaborative public-private approach can efficiently tackle infrastructure financing in Africa. It also calls for institutional investors’ allocations to infrastructure to be increased to the declared five per cent mark.

    The launch took place five years after a January 2012 African Union (AU) Summit adopted the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), which set out 51 cross-border infrastructure programmes and more than 400 actionable projects in four sectors.

    According to the World Bank, the continent needs to spend $93 billion annually (44 per cent for energy; 23 per cent for water and sanitation; 20 per cent for transport; 10 per cent for ICTs; and three per cent for irrigation) until 2020 to bridge its infrastructure gap, which removes an estimated two per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth every year.

    On the other hand, Africa only managed to close 158 project finance deals with debts totalling $59 billion over the decade (2004-2013), which represented only five per cent of infrastructure investment needs, and 12 per cent of the actual financial flows.

    At the launch in New York, NEPAD Chief Executive Officer Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, said: “Infrastructure plays a leading role in supporting growth on the continent. At the same time, it can represent an innovative and attractive asset class for institutional investors with long-term liabilities.

    “By launching the five per cent campaign in New York today, we invite investors to take advantage of the wide-ranging opportunities Africa has to offer and move forward with what can only be a win-win partnership.”

    The launch gathered high-level international investors and business leaders, including members of the PIDA Continental Business Network (CBN), which is spearheaded by NEPAD and constitutes a CEO-level private sector infrastructure leaders’ dialogue platform on PIDA.

    The CBN is a NEPAD and AU initiative, which enables private sector members to communicate recommendations to high-level African policy makers on how to improve the investment climate for infrastructure.

    One of Africa’s most prominent entrepreneurs and active participant in the CBN, Tony Elumelu, said: “Africa is getting stronger every day with new business opportunities and innovative ideas, but what is still crucially missing is project implementation.”

    He said a coherent and co-ordinated approach was needed to mobilise institutional investors while limiting their risk exposure. “African governments need to work on creating conducive environments to attract these investments, which are so vital for the continent’s growth and development,” Elumelu said.

    According to a 2016 McKinsey report, institutional investors and banks have $120 trillion in assets that could partially support infrastructural projects.

    The report noted that as banks face additional regulatory challenges, and as governments have limited fiscal space, it is becoming increasingly urgent to unlock additional flows from long-term institutional investors such as insurers, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds.

    It, however, stated that for pension and sovereign wealth funds to be able to invest in large-scale infrastructure projects in Africa, a variety of issues needed to be addressed to strategically and intentionally facilitate long-term allocations.

    One of the issues, according to the report, is the need to reform national and regional regulatory frameworks that guide institutional investment in Africa.

    It also said new capital market products need to be developed that can effectively de-risk credit and hence, allow these African asset owners to allocate finance to African infrastructure as an investable asset class to their portfolio.

    All these issues are at the heart of the 5 per cent Agenda roadmap, which is the backbone of NEPAD’s campaign and is foreseen to have many impacts, including unlocking notable and measurable pools of needed capital to implement regional and domestic infrastructure projects on the continent.

    It will also broaden and deepen the currently very shallow African capital markets, whilst at the same time contributing significantly to regional integration and job creation.

    The campaign is also expected to promote the development of innovative capital market products that are specific to the continent’s challenges and potential in regards to infrastructure development.

    Furthermore, it will raise the investment interest of other institutional and non-institutional financiers that have so far been hesitant to include African infrastructure projects as an asset to their investment portfolio based on specific, concrete next steps and project suggestions.

  • NEPAD stresses diversification through agric

    For Nigeria to effectively diversify its economy, emphasis must be placed on agriculture, the National Coordinator/Chief Executive Officer, New Partnership for Africa’s Development, Mrs. Gloria Akobundu, has said.

    According to her, NEPAD under her leadership would adopt this strategy to ensure food security and reduce the restiveness in various parts of Nigeria.

    She stated this at her maiden briefing in Abuja, noting that the organisation had identified four major areas upon which it would launch a new approach to achieve its objectives.

    Mrs Akobundu said: “These areas include economic diversification with emphasis on agriculture and food security; rethinking and realigning our engagements with development partners and other parts of the world in line with the reality of dwindling oil revenue and receipts.”

    She also spoke about the plan to rebrand and relaunch NEPAD Nigeria “for greater meaning and efficacy in the lives of our people”.

    The NEPAD chief observed that the agency’s vision, as encompassing as it appears to be, might not have envisioned all the realities.

    These, she said, “have come as a result of our growing population, new habits, problems, such as Boko Haram insurgency and the Niger Delta armed struggle, all of which have left various fallout that have left us with an army of Internally Displaced Persons, the maimed, homeless and the likes.

    “All of these are what we seek to address in our new approach so that the vision of NEPAD will make meaning to the grassroots, to the trader or artisan in Monday Market of Maiduguri, Alaba Market of Lagos and even in Ochanja Market of Onitsha.”

    She explained that NEPAD’s vision  was to establish a veritable framework for the development of Nigerians in various sectors and areas of national life, ranging from trade and investment to the development of infrastructure across the country.

    “It is not part of my mandate here to question what we have achieved in the years gone by since this partnership was set up in the early 2000. What will occupy me in the months and years ahead will certainly be what we can do to leverage our common efforts to make NEPAD better,” Mrs Akobundu added.

  • Akande to take over as NEPAD’s chair

    Akande to take over as NEPAD’s chair

    Former Minister of Industry Dr.  Nike Akande will take over as chairman of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Business Group Nigeria (NBGN) at the  organisation’s third Annual General Meeting (AGM) slated for Tuesday in Lagos. She will take over from Chief Chris Ezeh.

    Akande, a two-time Minister of Industry, is a seasoned industrialist and a believer in a strong and virile private sector as the engine and catalyst of economic growth. She is a founding member and a Director Board Member of the group, as well as a foundation member of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) and member of the African Business Roundtable (ABR).

    Akande is a director, PZ Cussons Foundation; Board Member, Bank Directors Association of Nigeria (BDAN); Chairman, Entrepreneurial Studies (AES) Excellence Club; Deputy President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI); Honorary Life Vice-President, National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), and President, Pan-African Organisation for Women Recognition.

  • African leaders praise NEPAD

    African leaders praise NEPAD

    African leaders have praised  the role of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) in keeping the dreams and potential of the African continent alive.

    South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma, gave the commendation during the African leaders 33rd NEPAD, Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee (HSGOC) meeting in Johannesburg shortly before the start of the African Union (AU) Summit.

    Zuma said the continent was now reaping the benefits of responsible macro-economic management and deepening integration into the world economy.

    He noted that an investment in infrastructure programmes, regional integration and intra-African trade was Africa’s solution for sustainable growth and development.

    AU Chairperson and Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe applauded NEPAD’s breakthroughs in project conceptualisation and implementation on the continent.

    He said NEPAD had provided critical synergies between and among African institutions, thereby enhancing the much-needed continental integration.

    Mugabe urged NEPAD to play a leading role in capacitating Regional Economic Communities to fast-track Africa’s quest for industrialisation and value addition of its vast mineral resources.

    He said: “Surely, the African people cannot continue to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, while others delight in their resources, in our resources.’’

    Macky Sall, the Chair of the NEPAD HSGOC and President of Senegal, also underscored the achievements made by NEPAD in advancing regional integration through infrastructure and capacity development projects.

    He stressed the need to tackle illicit financial flows from Africa and to enhance the capacities of African member countries to negotiate mining and oil contracts for the social benefit of African people.

    Sall also commended the NEPAD Spanish Fund for African Women’s Empowerment, in line with the 2015 summit theme.

    The NEPAD Agency Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ibrahim Mayaki, reported back on concrete results made for the period January to June 2015.

    He said the agency had achieved greater results and each had quantifiable impacts that were geared toward the industrialisation of the continent.

    Mayaki highlighted some of the key achievements to include the establishment of an Africa Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance aimed at reaching out to 25 million farmers by 2025.

  • Flashback: Jonathan’s special advisers and portfolios

    Flashback: Jonathan’s special advisers and portfolios

    As Nigerians await the official release of President Muhammadu Buhari’s list of Special Advisers, it is uncertain who the appointees will be. Only Mr. Femi Adesina, a former Managing Director of The Sun Newspaper has been be assigned the role of Special Adviser on Media and Publicity.

    President Buhari had on Monday sent a letter to the National Assembly, requesting the outgoing lawmakers to approve his plan to appoint 15 aides.

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan picked 18 special advisers for his administration and assigned them different portfolios.

    Here are Jonathan’s special advisers and the positions they occupied:

     

    – Eng. Mohammed Kachalla Abubakar – Deputy Chief of Staff to the President

    – Hassan Tukur – Principal Secretary to the President,

    – Dr. Tunji Olagunju – Special Adviser to the President on NEPAD,

    – Mr. Oronto Douglas – Special Adviser to the President on Research and Strategy

    – Hon. Kingsley Kuku – Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs.

    – Prof. Abubakar Sambo – Special Adviser to the President on Energy,

    – Mrs. Sarah Akuben Pane – Special Adviser to the President on Social Development

    – Mrs. Sarah Jibril – Special Adviser to the President on Ethics and Values

    – Senator Joy Emordi – Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters

    -Pius Olakunle Osunyikanmi – Special Adviser to the President on International Relations.

    – Prof. Dan Adebiyi – Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties

    – Dr. Reuben Abati – Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity

    – Mrs. Asma’u Abdulkadir – Special Adviser to the President on Gender Issues

    – Nze Sullivan Akachukwu Nwakpo – Special Adviser to the President on Technical Matters

    – Yakubu Abdullahi – Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters (Office of the Vice President)

    – Barr. Bashir Sufyan – Special Adviser to the President on Legal Matters (Office of the Vice President)

    – Senator Isaiah Ballat – Special Adviser to the President for Special Duties (Office of the Vice President).

  • 2015 budget: Reps warn against travel ban for NEPAD

    The House of Representatives has said slashing the 2015 budget of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Nigeria would not serve the purpose the agency was created for.

    The lawmakers berated the Budget Office for failing to revolutionise its envelope system of budgeting.

    According to them, the envelope system whereby bulk funds were allocated to all sub heads in budget proposals without due diligence on the needs of each, was inimical to economic growth.

    They said the envelope system do not take into consideration peculiarities of each Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) of government.

    Chairman, House Committee on Cooperation and Integration in Africa, Abubakar Momoh, cited a federal government policy that directed MDAs to expunge international travels from their 2015 budget.

    He said the Budget office failed to realise that the core duties of agencies like the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Nigeria were about global engagements.

    These engagements cannot be accomplished without international travels, he said.

    Speaking during NEPAD’s budget defense and presentation, Momoh said even if the Budget Office failed to realise it, affected agencies should draw the attention to the directive as it affects their operations.

    According to him, since NEPAD is not a contact- awarding agencies to remove or cut international travels from its budget amounts to crippling its operations.

    Special Adviser to the President on NEPAD, Ambassador Fidelia Akuabata, said the agency proposes N247m for its capital expenditure and N500m for recurrent expenditure.

    She said the agency needed to reactivate its seven clusters with which it interacts with MDAs.

    Nigeria, being a founding member of NEPAD, Akuabata stated would assume the Chairmanship of NEPAD’s Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee in 2017.