Sustainable Development Goals Require $55bn Annually, Says FG

• Sustainable Development Goals Require $55bn Annually, Says FG

The Federal Government on Tuesday announced that the amount required annually to fund the 17 Sustainable Development Goals is $55bn.

It disclosed this in Abuja through the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals.

The SDGs are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.

The goals address the global challenges faced by humans, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice.

According to the United Nations, the goals interconnect, adding that in order to leave no one behind, it is important that countries of the world achieve each goal and target by 2030.

The Senior Technical Adviser to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals, Bala Yunusa, stated that $55bn was needed annually to sufficiently fund the SDGs.

He disclosed this when a delegation from the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre led by the Programme Manager, Kolawale Banwo, paid a courtesy visit to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals, Adejoke Adefulire, in Abuja.

Yunusa, according to a statement from the OSSAP -SDGs on Tuesday, urged CISLAC to be part of the civil society advocacy group on SDGs, which is a multi-stakeholder engagement group, in order to enable it to push CISLAC’s cause forward.

On her part, Adefulire, who was represented by the Secretary of Programme, Hassan Suleiman, said her office would support CISLAC in the move towards the cleanup of Ogoniland.

She said the cleanup of Ogoniland was an issue of concern and that the government was not relenting in its efforts to ensure that the issue was addressed head-on.

Adefulire urged CISLAC to interface with relevant ministries and agencies like health, budget office, petroleum as well as the Ministry of Finance to add more impetus in their bid to tackle water pollution as a result of oil spillage in the Niger Delta.

The leader of the CISLAC delegation said their visit was borne out of the concern in Ogoniland which had been devastated by oil spillage and to seek for collaboration with OSSAP -SDGs to assist in fast-tracking the cleanup of the area.

Banwo noted that over time, the people of Ogoniland had faced water pollution occasioned by the oil exploration by oil companies in the Niger Delta, adding that this had adversely affected aquatic animals, contaminated drinking water and rendered farmlands unfit for agriculture.