Northwest Governors Discuss Region’s Development Plans With UN, AfDB
The Northwest Governors Forum has interfaced with senior United Nations officials and the African Development Bank on the region’s development agenda, including tackling the issues of poverty, out of school children and youth unemployment.
Speaking to newsmen after the meeting, the forum’s Chairman and Governor of Katsina State, Dikko Umaru Radda said they agreed to pursue quick and high impact interventions across social protection, education, food security and climate adaptation.
“We had an elaborate meeting with the African Development Bank regarding NAG 2.0 – the Nigeria Agricultural Growth Scheme — which targets the Northwestern states.”
He said that the six states in the region were on the verge of implementing the programme, which is targeted at developing agricultural value chain.
Governor Radda also announced that discussions with AfDB covered the Special Agro-Processing Zones (SAPZ) phase 2 implementation strategies and the livestock development plan for the region.
“While the first phase included Kaduna and Kano States, all six Northwest states will be beneficiaries in the second phase.”
The forum Chairman equally stated that they interfaced with the IRS on renewable energy especially the deployment of solar and CNG for sustainable economic growth in the region.
He added that they would tap the available resources at the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) to provide access to tertiary education for students in the region.
In a move to strengthen regional coordination, the Forum confirmed Ms. Maryam Musa Yahaya as its pioneer Director General.
Ms. Yahaya brings into the new role her wealth of experience of engagement with international development partners as well as her working relationship with the State Governments at the Nigeria Govenors Forum (NGF) Secretariat.
“Each state governor has designated a focal person to coordinate development partner programmes within their respective states,” Radda said.
“We have unanimously agreed to work together on economic development, agricultural advancement, addressing the challenge of out-of-school children, poverty alleviation, and youth employment.
“These are the focus areas of our various state administrations in the Northwest.”
The engagement had in attendance UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, and the UN Resident Coordinator, Malick Fall.
The meeting was attended by Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State, Dauda Lawal of Zamfara, Ahmed Aliyu of Sokoto, Dikko Umaru Radda of Katsina State and Umar Namadi of Jigawa.
