Cynthia Ezekwe
Nigeria is currently faced with the challenge of how to raise an estimated $10 billion a year to finance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), even as it strives to attain the goals by 2030.
Adegoke Orelope-Adefulire, senior special adviser to the president on SDGs, made this known, recently, stating that the budget of both federal and sub-national governments put together can’t match half of the said fund needed to implement SDGs in Nigeria.
Orelope-Adefulire, has said that the combined budgets of the federal and sub-national governments cannot match half of the estimated $10 billion needed to fund the SDGs in Nigeria. In a recent statement, Orelope-Adefulire stressed the importance of the SDGs and called for more financial commitment from all levels of government and other stakeholders to ensure their successful implementation.
At the 29th Nigeria Economic Summit, Orelope-Adefulire stressed the importance of implementing the Addis Ababa Agenda, a framework for aligning financing flows and policies with economic, social, and environmental priorities, to achieve the SDGs. She highlighted the need for increased financing from all sources, including public, private, and development partners. She also called for increased use of innovative financing tools such as blended finance and green bonds to close the financing gap.
“The biggest elephant in the room is how to raise the $10 billion funding required to finance the SDGs annually because the budget of both the federal and sub- national governments put together can’t match the half of the said fund needed to implement SDGs in Nigeria,’’ she said.
On how to raise the needed funds, Orelope-Adefulire stated that the private sector must play a complementary role to the government. The government needs to expand the tax net to capture more people, while the private sector must invest through corporate social responsibility (CSR) and mobilise resources. She also called for increased domestic resource mobilisation through innovative strategies such as tax incentives and increased foreign direct investment.
Orelope-Adefulire further noted that the government must strengthen the legal and regulatory environment for investments, while also providing the necessary infrastructure and institutions to support private sector growth.
She called on the captains of industry to mobilise resources and work together with the government to achieve the SDGs, while assuring that implementation of the SDGs would commence before the end of the year.
 Omoboyede Olusanya, managing director of Nigeria Flour Mills, argued that the federal government must create a supportive environment and incentivize the private sector to commit funds towards achieving the SDGs.
“To catalyse resources from the private sector, the government must support the private sector by fixing the infrastructure, and provide tax holidays for them to flourish. There is a need for the private sector to also mobilise resources in sub-nationals levels, which they are already doing in their various host communities,’’ he added.
