By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
The federal government on Thursday revealed that Nigeria’s current access to basic drinking water now stands at 64% just as it was also disclosed that 23 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have received N24,450,000,000.00 from the Conditional Grant Schemes as incentive to invest more of their resources into areas of national development priorities and the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs)/Sustainable Development Goals MDGs (SDGs).
The funds, disbursed from 2015 to date, was introduced in 2007 with a 50 per cent matching grant from the federal government and 50 per cent from the participating states.
This cheering news was disclosed in Abuja by the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on SDGs, Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, who revealed this at the weekly Presidential Media briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday.
She said the grants were targeted at education, health, water and sanitation projects “and aimed at executing pro-poor projects in a consultative manner with the beneficiaries.”
Specifically, she revealed that the money was spent on the implementation of 732 water and sanitation facilities; 494 health facilities (new facilities and renovation/rehabilitation); 616 education facilities (new construction, renovation/rehabilitation of block of classrooms; 1,150 women and men were empowered/trained in vocational skills, such as sewing, knitting, detergent & pomade making etc.).
The former Deputy Governor of Lagos state, said there were special intervention projects across the geo-political zones, an initiative, she affirmed, was aimed at strategic investment to fast-track the achievement of the SDGs in Nigeria.
The Presidential aide added: “Between 2016 and 2021, a record number of projects have been implemented, aimed at providing essential services to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs, by ensuring no Nigerian is left behind.
Orelope-Adefulire also spoke on some findings from the 2020 voluntarily national review, indicating that from Nigeria’s 2nd Voluntary National Review (VNR) 2020 on SDG-3, while the country faces challenges on health outcomes, such as high rates of maternal mortality, there has been a significant reduction in the under-five mortality rates (from 157 to 132).
She disclosed that Nigeria’s current access to basic drinking water now stands at 64% as according to her, the review emphasised the need for more investment in public health and to ensure the most vulnerable are reached through universal access to basic healthcare services.
She further explained: “On SDG-4, a key challenge confronting the country has to do with Out-of- School-Children, a demographic challenge that relates to an interplay between employment (SDG-8), education (SDG-4), poverty (SDG-1) and the digital economy (SDG-17). With a population of approximately 200 million people, regional disparities are significant.
“With about 10.8 million out-of-school children and more people drifting into poverty, Nigeria’s expenditure on education was just about 8.6 per cent in 2015 and witnessed a steady decline to 8.2, 8.5 and 8.2 per cent in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
