Onyekachi Eze 
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has pledged to support state governments in Nigeria across five key sectors, agriculture, energy transition, healthcare, education, and the digital economy.
UNDP Resident Representative in Nigeria, Ms. Elsie G. Attafuah, announced the commitment on Thursday during a visit to the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) Secretariat in Abuja.
According to a statement by the NGF Director of Media and Strategic Communications, Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, Attafuah said the initiative was designed to ensure that no state is left behind in Nigeria’s development journey.
“These are areas where impact will be most visible in the lives of our people,” Attafuah said, noting that the UNDP’s engagement with the NGF would help state governments “convert their opportunities into tangible investments that create jobs, expand access, and build resilience.”
NGF Director-General, Dr. Abdulateef Shittu, described the collaboration as a timely intervention to deepen Nigeria’s subnational development agenda.
He lauded UNDP’s continued partnership, which, he said, has enabled state governments to become more competitive and investment-ready.
“Our goal is to create a pathway where subnational governments can independently attract, manage, and sustain investments that directly impact lives and livelihoods,” Shittu stated.
Shittu disclosed that the NGF had recently launched Investopedia, a digital investment intelligence platform aggregating over 269 investment-ready projects across Nigeria’s 36 states.
He said the initiative demonstrated that “Nigerian states are ready, willing, and able to lead the country’s transformation when provided with the right tools and partnerships.”
The NGF boss added that the next phase of the collaboration with UNDP would focus on three priorities: strengthening states’ fiscal and institutional capacity to attract long-term financing; establishing frameworks for blended and innovative finance; and developing a pipeline of bankable projects aligned with national and global sustainability goals.
“We see this partnership as catalytic. With UNDP’s technical support and the forum’s coordination structure, we can make subnational governments key drivers of Nigeria’s development narrative,” he added.
UNDP Chief Economist for Africa and Head of its Economists’ Network, Dr. Raymond Gilpin, who was part of the delegation, said the organization’s strategic support would help states develop frameworks that integrate capital mobilisation, governance reforms, and data-driven planning.
“Nigeria’s states are essential building blocks of national development,” Gilpin said. “Our role at UNDP is to support the Forum in strengthening the systems that make investments viable, from fiscal governance and data analytics to human capital and institutional efficiency.”
Gilpin described the engagement as a continuation of UNDP’s long-standing partnership with the NGF to promote inclusive, equitable, and sustainable growth across Nigeria.
