Bill Gates (left) when he visited Nigeria few months ago
While speaking at a press conference on Thursday in Abuja, the Chief Strategy Officer at the Bill & Belinda Gates Foundation, Mark Suzman, formally announced a new partnership between the foundation and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum which is aimed at strengthening cross-state policies in Nigeria.
According to Punch, the policies would also strengthen financial resources that they said would benefit the poorest people in the country.
Speaking further, Suzman said the three-year $2m partnership will focus on domestic revenue challenge, with the aim of strengthening public financing for social programmes that Suzman said would benefit the poor.
The fund, he added, would also afford the NGF and the Gates Foundation to develop a road map for future collaboration in strengthening Primary Health Care in Nigeria that would unlock funding dedicated to the work.
“The Gates Foundation recognises how critical state leadership is to development in Nigeria.
“This is because two-thirds of social spending in Nigeria occurs at the sub national information exchange, collaboration on policy, and the work of executive governors in determining how best to ensure Federal and state policies work for Nigeria’s poorest,” Suzman said.
He told the gathering, which included governors, that Gates Foundation and NGF had previously partnered together on polio eradication in Nigeria, with notable success, adding that there were still works to be done to finish the job on polio, and that the NGF was a critical partner in maintaining the country’s commitment to polio eradication.
Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, who spoke on behalf of the governors, assured the donors that the fund would be judiciously used, adding that he and his colleagues were happy that the NGF found worthy partners in the two organisations.
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