Governors reaffirm commitment to early childhood development<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
By Emmanuel Oloniruha<\/p>\n
The Nigerian Governors\u2019 Forum (NGF) has\u00a0 reaffirmed the commitment of all 36 state governors to making Early Childhood Development, (ECD) a strategic priority in Nigeria\u2019s human capital development agenda.<\/p>\n
The NGF Director, Media and Strategic Communications Yunusa Abdullahi, in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday quoted the Director-General of the NGF Secretariat Dr Abdulateef Shittu, making the commitment at a workshop on ECD.<\/p>\n
Shittu, who was represented by Abdullahi at the North-West Zonal Consultative, made commitment of the forum on collaboration with World Bank, Human Capital Development (HCD) and the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning,<\/p>\n
Shittu described investment in the early years as a long-term investment in Nigeria\u2019s health, education, productivity and economic future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe period from pregnancy through the first five years of life represents a critical window for a child\u2019s development.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is during these formative years that the foundations for health, learning, cognitive development and future productivity are established.\u201d<\/p>\n
The director-general said Nigeria must increasingly approach ECD as a development and economic imperative rather than as an intervention limited to a single sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cInvesting in early childhood development is therefore not only an investment in children; it is an investment in Nigeria\u2019s human capital and long-term economic development,\u201d Shittu said<\/p>\n
The director general said the effectiveness of national ECD policies would ultimately be determined by their translation into concrete programmes at the subnational level.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile national policies and frameworks provide important direction, their impact will ultimately depend on how effectively they are translated into action at the state and local government levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese places us, the state actors, at the centre of Nigeria\u2019s ECD agenda,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Shittu noted that the complexity of early childhood development requires a coordinated, multi-sectorial approach involving all relevant sectors.<\/p>\n
\u201cECD is inherently multi-sectorial. No single MDA can deliver the range of interventions that a child requires to thrive.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll sectors must work together towards shared outcomes for children,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said that the consultative process should enable states to move from broad policy commitments to practical plans that are aligned with their specific needs and institutional realities.<\/p>\n
Shittu, however, cautioned against treating the development of plans as an end in itself, emphasising the importance of implementation, financing, coordination and accountability.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur expectation is that this process goes beyond the development of plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plans developed here should provide a clear pathway for implementation, coordination, financing and accountability and, importantly, should be integrated into existing state planning and budgeting processes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Shittu pledged that the NGF Secretariat would continue to use its convening and peer-learning role to support states in strengthening their ECD systems and translating national priorities into sustainable subnational action.<\/p>\n
He added that the NGF Secretariat recognised the critical role of leadership in advancing early childhood development at the subnational level.<\/p>\n
He disclosed that all 36 governors had formally reaffirmed their commitment to ECD at NGF meeting of June 17.<\/p>\n
He recalled that the governors reaffirmed that investments in ECD were fundamental to improving health, nutrition, school readiness, learning outcomes, future productivity, and overall human capital development.<\/p>\n
Shittu pledged that the NGF would continue to champion ECD as an important development priority while facilitating shared learning among states and strengthening collaboration with relevant partners.<\/p>\n
The director-general urged the workshop participants to use the consultative workshop to develop realistic plans capable of producing measurable improvements in outcomes for young children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Governors reaffirm commitment to early childhood development By Emmanuel Oloniruha The Nigerian Governors\u2019 Forum (NGF) has\u00a0 reaffirmed the commitment of all 36 state governors to making Early Childhood Development, (ECD) a strategic priority in Nigeria\u2019s human capital development agenda. The NGF Director, Media and Strategic Communications Yunusa Abdullahi, in a statement in Abuja on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG-20260813-WA0047.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=530"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":534,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions\/534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}