King Akan in Abuja
The African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development/African Peer Review Mechanism (AUDA-NEPAD/APRM) second peer review is ongoing despite the restrictions posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The National Co-ordinator/CEO NEPAD Nigeria, Ms Gloria Akobundu, disclosed this yesterday during a press briefing at the AUDA-NEPAD Nigeria Headquarters, Abuja.
Gloria stated that the exercise would be conducted successfully with faultless procedures, in line with the adopted road map and time frame as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari, despite the restrictions and challenges of COVID-19 nationally and globally.
This followed the broad sensitisation and training session on sharing experiences for the conduct of a second peer review, the virtual training, and the domestication of the APRM questionnaires for the country’s self-assessment exercise.
She urged the AUDA-NEPAD/APRM partners and the media to help in the sensitisation of the exercise, which she said is ongoing in the country’s six geo-political zones. Speaking at the press briefing, the Chairman of the National Governing Council of the APRM, Senator Abba Ali, stated that “this second peer review is necessary to identify deficiencies while reinforcing best practices, inform Nigerians on the state of the programme, strengthen partnerships for economic growth and to achieve a proper statistics of governance in Nigeria.”
Ali also highlighted some of the achievements of the ongoing Second Peer Review Process (SPRP), which includes the inauguration of the national governing council, training of the national governing council, and sectoral consultations including gender, youths, vulnerable persons, private sector amongst others.
He noted that the would be based on four thematic areas: Democracy and Political Governance; Economic Management and Governance; Corporate Governance and Socio-Economic Development.
The APRM was established in 2003 and conducted its First Peer Review Process in 2008.
