A report released by the Center for Democracy and Development CDD, says Civil Society Groups are catalyst to human Capital Development, Job Creation and promotion of accountability in the country.
Presenting the report in Abuja, tagged Impact Assessment of CSOs in Nigeria, a development Sector Expert Mr Jaye Gaskia said the report underscores the need for State, Civil Society Groups and Private Sector actors to collaborate in addressing the nation’s myriad of developmental challenges.
According to him, Analysis of the report carried out in the six geopolitical zones of the federation, indicates that CSOs contributes to 89% human Capital Development, job creation and 11% shows non complete employment.
” 50.5% of the respondent agreed that CSOs work at the grassroots community, 28.4% says they work at Sub National level and only 12.6% work at National level, which means more community involvement of CSOs in the country” He said.
Mr Gaskia while stating that States such as Kogi, Kano, Borno, Lagos, Rivers and Enugu were selected for the sample survey noted that the data also shows that CSOs are at the fore front of Advocacy for public transparency, accountability as well as human right defence.
In a panel discussion, the Police Force Public Relations Officer Frank Mba, maintained that CSOs remains a strong partners and not antagonists as being peddled around, stressing that Government is willing and ready to work with any group that would support developmental projects and sustainable peace.
Also the Spokesperson for the State Security Service Mr Peter Afunanya reiterated that security agencies would continue to collaborate with Civil Society Groups especially in providing useful information that would nip in the bud issues that affects societal peace, while urging them to disregard any misconceptions of Government being hostile or antagonists to their commitment to nation building.
The representative of the European Union and Agents for Citizen Driven Transformation Mr Idem Udoekong explained that the Organization agreed to fund the project through CDD, to have an evidence based report if Civil Society Groups contribution and impact on good governance as well as national development.
Reporting by Julian Osamoto, Editing by Daniel Adejo