By Tony Obiechina, Abuja

The Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed has reiterated Federal Government’s strong commitment towards attaining the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and the SDGs.

The Minister who stated this on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly in New York, said It is this commitment that culminated to the recent launch of the Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF).

The High-Level Side Event was organized as part of Nigeria’s commitment to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development; as well as to meet the estimated US$100 Billion financing requirements for the SDGs.

The Minister explained that the meeting under the auspice of the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) presented another opportunity for the stakeholders to discuss on the mileage covered so far, and next steps taken by the present Administration in its commitment towards bringing the SDGs home to the point where “no one is left behind” and ordinary Nigerians can proudly boast of having felt its impact in their individual lives.

According to her, Nigeria decided to adopt the INFF as a tool to improve SDG financing without increasing public debt and contingent liabilities to levels that will be detrimental to economic sustainability.

Ahmed said, “This financing strategy is backed by a Medium-Term Revenue Strategy and a Medium-Term Expenditure Framework. It is further supported by a clear roadmap and monitoring framework and includes guidance on governance and coordination to provide a holistic approach with the necessary transparency and accountability measures to make this a successful initiative.

“What do we aim to achieve with the INGFF? We hope to improve on our revenue collection both at the national and sub-national levels. To this end, we plan to digitalize, optimize and generally make our tax system much more effective, better coordinate the budget processes, and generally make public spending much more effective.

“We also aim to make Nigeria a hub for private investment both at the international and local levels. We will work with banks and local investors – including institutional investors by creating a more conducive environment for them to operate.

“For international private investors, priority will be given to designing polices and instruments that could positively promote their interest in Nigeria. We are already working towards improving remittance flow, foreign direct investments, venture capital and angel investment among others into the Nigerian economy.

“We would be relying on the continued support of our international partners such as donor organisations, International Financial Institutions (IFIs), multilateral development banks (MDBs), Development finance institutions (DFIs) to provide grants, and concessional loans that will enable us build our infrastructure and generally improve our economy.

On what the country stands to gain in return, the Minister disclosed that the Federal government would seek a collaborative support from “our friends, partners, and potential partners to join hands with us to achieve the SDGs in Nigeria through the INFF approach”.

She further added that, “We are creating a framework – a platform, from where we hope that we can all leverage our capacities as stakeholders and actively support Nigeria’s investment drive towards achieving the SDGs by the year 2050”.