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Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima has called on the 36 state governors to intensify efforts in implementing Human Capital Development (HCD) programmes, stressing that Nigeria’s success depends more on its people than on its natural resources or industrial capacity.
Shettima made the call on Friday at a meeting of the Steering Committee of the Human Capital Development Programme held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. He emphasised that Nigeria’s future in the 21st century will be shaped by the education of its children, the strength of its workforce, and the well-being of communities.
He urged governors to prioritise five key HCD indicators and ensure that state-level implementation becomes a core governance focus. Regular meetings of State HCD Councils, he said, must be non-negotiable.
Underscoring the importance of human capital, Shettima noted that history would remember the Tinubu administration for choosing to prioritise people over politics, investing in capacity over convenience, and building a nation that thrives by confronting challenges head-on.
The Vice President also highlighted the expansion of the HCD Steering Committee to include key sectors, strengthening its governance structure.
Shettima commended several state-level interventions, such as Project Fuuku in Nasarawa State, which distributed over 1,000 clean cookstoves to vulnerable households, demonstrating the link between HCD and environmental sustainability.
Additionally, he noted the development of the HCD Dashboard, a data-driven platform tracking key indicators such as immunisation rates, learning poverty, and youth unemployment, allowing for evidence-based policy decisions.
Shettima also advocated for a nationwide survey to collect real-time data on HCD priority indicators, including health, education, and workforce readiness.
“We believe that data must drive our decisions. We cannot solve what we do not measure. A nationwide survey must be commissioned to collect real-time data on priority indicators—health, education, and workforce readiness. A nation that aspires to greatness must ground its policies in evidence, not assumptions,” he stated.
He further urged private sector engagement, stressing that traditional government funding alone is insufficient. He called on corporate leaders, development partners, and philanthropic institutions to see HCD as an investment in Nigeria’s economic prosperity, rather than charity.
Minister of Finance Wale Edun praised the HCD team for strengthening data collection mechanisms, stating that economic growth without human capital development is futile. He added that as global interest in Africa rises due to its young population, more attention must be given to education, skills development, and healthcare.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Country Representative, Elsie Attafuah, also commended the Nigerian government’s commitment to HCD, highlighting projects such as the Nigeria Jubilee Fellows Programme (NJFP) and the Three Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme.
She stressed that Nigeria’s development path lies in its human resources, not natural wealth, and revealed plans to establish technology hubs in all state universities to foster innovation in technology, business, and industries.
In her presentation, Rukaiya El-Rufai, Special Adviser to the President on National Economic Council (NEC) and Climate Change, noted that the HCD governance structure had been redesigned and that the team had successfully secured an ECOWAS grant to fund HCD initiatives.
She also pointed to the HCD dashboard, which monitors progress in health, nutrition, education, and labour force development nationwide.
