Federal Government reviews collaboration with development partners.

 Supervising Minister of National Planning, Amb Bashir Yuguda

The Federal Government has begun moves to review the level of development cooperation between Nigeria and international development partners.

The move, according to the Supervising Minister of National Planning, Amb Bashir Yuguda, is meant to ensure that aids and grants from development partners are aligned with the country’s development priorities. The minister spoke in Abuja at the annual forum between the NPC and development partners.

The meeting with theme ‘Enhancing partnerships for national development and socio-economic transformation’ is aimed at sharing views and ideas on development approaches, best practices, intervention and strategies.

Yuguda said following the rebasing of the economy which placed the Nigeria economy as the largest in Africa, there is need for the country to review its operational collaboration mechanisms and explore ways which they can be optimised.

To achieve this, he said there is need to agree on priorities, targets, oaks and shared approaches towards accelerating the pace, quality, inclusivity and the impact of development programmes implemented by various international partners.

He said, “The outcome of the rebasing has now further challenged us to redouble our efforts at ensuring the successful transformation of the economy.

“To keep Nigeria in its current position requires the efforts of all stakeholders, particularly the development partners as more resources are needed to sustain the tempo and to address current challenges, particularly in the areas of security, education, health and employment generation.”

He said Nigeria and the developing world are currently passing through a critical phase of their development since the global development agenda is shifting focus from the Millennium Development Goals to a more comprehensive post 2015 development agenda.

“As we move towards list 2015 development agenda, we must also begin to review ways in which to enhance and strengthen our partnerships.

“The NPC-IDP development dialogue forum should be used as platform for forging such partnerships,” he said.

Also speaking at the event, the Resident Representatives/Coordinator, United Nations Systems, Mr Daouda Toure, said that the challenges that lie ahead for development partners after the rebasing would be to reduce unemployment, diversifying the economy, address escalating insurgency.

“What we are bringing to the table is best practices that would allow optimal utilization of resources and this can be achieved when programmes are nationally owned,” he added.

The House committee chairman on National Planning, Hon Bethel Amadi said with the scarcity of resource and the ever competing demands for developmental projects, the resources needed to develop the county are never enough.

He said, “Recent trends have shown that the net oversees aid to Nigeria has been decreasing.

“There are fears that the GDP rebasing would further worsen the declining trend.

“The aid from developmental partners in Nigeria should be tailored to our specific needs and there is need for them to use the vision 2020 and transformation agenda to guide them in their programmes.” PUNCH.