The National Coordinator of the African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD), Princess Gloria Akobundu has said that President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to good governance, poverty eradication and job creation in the country.
She said this at the agency’s 2019 retreat on reform and the domestication of its new mandates in Abuja.
The retreat was organised to sensitise AUDA-NEPAD’s staff on the expectations of its new mandates with the theme: “Building Teamwork and Improving Capacity for Organisational Productivity”.
According to her, Buhari is determined to realign and restructure Nigeria through the agency’s mandates.
“The essence of this retreat is for us to understand our structure, to understand where we are, to understand what is expected of us which is the mandates, to construct ourselves, put ourselves together on how we can start proper and effective delivery to the people.
“We’ve done a lot of sensitization programme, we’ve carried out capacity building across the six geo-political zones of this country in line with our mandate to eradicate poverty and create jobs under the leadership and directive of Mr President.
“We’ve also carried out the reforms which is ongoing, the reform of NEPAD approved by Mr President, because he is trying to restructure and re-align Nigeria to serve our people better to suit today’s global community and to be able to deliver our mandates effectively.”
Akobundu said the new mandates include co-ordinating and implementing priority continental and regional projects towards promoting regional integration that would accelerate realisation of Agenda 2063, among others.
Also, Sen. Abba Ali, Chairman National Governing Council of AUDA-NEPAD, explained that the President relaunched the agency into AUDA-NEPAD in a bid to reposition it for more efficiency.
Ali said the retreat was pertinent to reintegrate the staff into the new vision, objectives, goals and its activities in line with the ongoing reform and structures of the agency.
News Agency of Nigeria reports that the transition of NEPAD to AUDA was intended to strengthen the operations of AU and ensure effective implementation of Agenda 2063 and UN-SDGs.
The AU 2063 is Africa’s blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future.
