Fred Itua and Okwe Obi, Abuja
As review of Nigeria’s Vision 2020 comes to a close, the lead consultant, European Union-Federal Governance Reform (EU-SUFEGOR), says the European Union (EU) has supported Nigeria with €1 billion to address some challenges.
EU-SUFEGO’s Director, Business and Strategy, Michelle Delgado, who spoke to Daily Sun in Abuja at the weekend, said targeted sectors include social, economic and good governance.
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“For the three projects, European Union supported Nigeria with €1billion in 13 years. Good governance alone gulped £12 million. The three priority sectors for the current 11th EDF development assistance to Nigeria are: social sector, which is meant to improve access to quality primary health care, the fight against malnutrition and measures to strengthen resilience and promote social protection,” Delago said.
“Included here are support for routine and polio immunization campaigns, activities to improve access to clean water and sanitation, and reinforce livelihoods and revenue generation in rural populations through food and nutrition security.”
She added: “In the economic sector, it is meant to increase access to sustainable electricity, supporting efforts to improve conditions for economic growth with a focus on improving competitiveness and diversification, development of renewable energy and energy efficiency measures and strengthening public finance systems at state and federal levels, to create a stable environment for trade and investment activities.
“In the governance sector, continued support to action to strengthen democracy in Nigeria, the fight against corruption, the fight against trafficking of human beings, drugs and small arms, the reform of the justice system, measures to manage migration more efficiently and effectively, and capacity building for civil society organisations.”
Meanwhile, EU’s Section Head on Economic Coorporation and Energy, Nadia Cannata, said EU-SUFEGOR was able to touch all the areas especially poverty reduction.
Cannata suggested that poverty, insecurity unemployment, poor infrastructures could be linked to poor public service reform.