The participation of the private sector is essential, according to Engr. Suleiman Adamu, Minister of Water Resources, for Nigeria to meet its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
At the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony for the Clean Naija Project between the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Reckitt Benckiser in Abuja, Adamu made this statement.
In order to increase access to sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene, the Ministry has launched a number of projects, Adamu recalled. He added that the Ministry has recognised the vital role the private sector plays in the actualization of the ministry's responsibilities.
He said: “We understand as Government the need to create an enabling environment and framework that incentivises the participation of the private sector in service delivery.”
The minister disclosed that the Organized Private Sector in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (OPWASH) coordination platform was established in 2019 with the goal of enabling efficient coordination of private sector interventions and lowering Nigeria's subpar WASH indices (WASH).
Earlier, Reckitt Benkizer Sub Saharan Africa Group Manager Akbar Ali Shah stated that the company's primary goal is to protect, heal, and nurture in the never-ending quest for a cleaner and healthier planet.
Shah revealed that Reckitt through its Dettol brand has initiated hygiene educational programmes, while expressing the resolve of the organisation to assist Nigeria to accomplish one of its objectives, which is, reducing diarrhoea related child mortality, in line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of 2030, via the “Clean Naija Initiative”.
The Group Manager, while expressing gratitude to the government said, “Reckitt Nigeria is committed to partner with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources in the area of WASH on awareness creation, eco-system creation, infrastructural development and behavioural change to achieve a cleaner and healthier Nigeria”.
In her remarks, Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mrs. Didi Walson-Jack, assured the Group Manager of Reckit of the cooperation of the Ministry in the task of meeting the SDGs 6, which is Water and Sanitation for All.
Meanwhile, the details of the MoU centred on awareness creation, stakeholders’ collaboration and infrastructural development, intended to contribute to the reduction in diarrhoea disease occasioned by poor sanitation and hygiene practices, improvement in sanitation and hygiene services and elimination of open defecation in line with the objectives of the Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet Campaign.