Chairman of the Northwest Governors’ Forum and Governor of Katsina State, Malam Dikko Umaru Radda, has called for increased private-sector investment and stronger regional cooperation to accelerate development and address insecurity across Nigeria’s Northwest.
According to a statement by the chief press secretary to the governor, Ibrahim Kaula, Radda made the call at high-level events held on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he presented Katsina’s experience with development financing and the Northwest Peace, Security and Development Framework.
Speaking at the inaugural ASIS Global Action Forum, convened by the Sterling One Foundation with UNFPA, RALLY Africa and other partners, he said the challenge was no longer a lack of financing options but the difficulty of attracting private capital into public development projects.
The governor said Katsina had benefited from 11 World Bank projects worth about $430 million covering education, water, agriculture, rural roads and environmental development.
The African Development Bank is also financing the state’s Agro-Industrial Processing Zone with $30 million, while the Islamic Development Bank is providing $60 million for the first phase of its Integrated Agricultural Development Hubs.
Radda identified stronger public-private partnership frameworks, de-risking mechanisms, reliable counterpart funding and transparent monitoring as priorities for attracting investment.
At a separate high-level event on the Northwest framework, Radda urged the seven states to work collectively on insecurity, poverty, displacement and economic development.
“Security must be accompanied by opportunity,” he said, arguing that military operations alone could not deliver lasting peace.
Radda urged investors and development partners to look beyond the region’s security challenges and support projects in agriculture, infrastructure, logistics, skills and enterprise, saying the governors were ready to move from planning to implementation.
Also speaking, the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed commended the governors for presenting a common regional plan and pledged UN support.
She highlighted the Northwest’s importance to food production and called for coordinated financing, stronger institutions, jobs and community-focused investments.
Mohammed said the UNDP was developing a proposal for a Northwest-led Stabilisation-to-Transformation Programme and Financing Platform.
