The Public and Private sector have been called upon to work in synergy towards successful implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in Nigeria.
The call was made by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Princess Adejoke Orelope – Adefulire, when Sahara Foundation visited her office in Abuja.
The SSAP said herself and her teams are working assiduously to facilitate and scale up development plans of the Nigerian Government as enshrined in the 17 goals of SDGs. Stating that the office is making effort at ensuring that Nigerians continue to enjoy and benefit from the Debt Relief Gains (DRG). She said neither government nor the private sector can work in isolation to bring the desired development, thus, the need for both public and private sector to work together in harmony.
The SSAP said a lots need to be done to harness the growth and storage of some agricultural products like wheat, yam packing, onions, tomatoes, pepper, ginger etc, adding that the need to train and retrain the youth on efficient production and storage of such crops cannot be overemphasized, stressing that our teaming unemployed youth will soon be engaged in viable businesses.
Earlier the leader of the delegation Mr. Tonye Cole, said, their visit to the SSAP is to seek for partnership with government, pointing out that, their foundation is in partnership with the United Nations through the Sustainable Development Goals Fund (SDG-F) to promote awareness and encourage achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) across the globe. Sahara Group is part of the Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG) Committee that was set up in April 2015 to promote partnerships between the UN and the private sector towards achieving the SDG’s.
He said, the Sahara Group scaled through a rigorous process of selecting companies with the best practices, innovative approaches and successful track records in sustainability projects, where 13 companies from a list of over 100 global multinational were eventually selected and inaugurated in Madrid. Within the African continent, only Sahara Group and another South African company made the final select group.
Mr. Cole said they have identified some projects that can potentially be scaled up across Nigeria and other African Countries. He pointed out that a workshop will soon be organized to deliberate on how both Public and Private sector will work together to implement the SDGF successfully in Nigeria.
