Isiyaku Ahmed
The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has approved the establishment of the NGF Academy and Leadership Centre as a flagship directorate within its secretariat to strengthen leadership capacity, improve governance and promote policy innovation across the 36 states.
The initiative is designed to provide executive capacity development, applied research, governance advisory services, digital innovation and structured peer learning within a unified, non-partisan institutional framework.
The Director-General of the NGF, Dr Abdullatif Shittu, disclosed this in a statement, explaining that the academy was conceived to develop competent, reform-oriented and future-ready leaders capable of addressing emerging governance and development challenges at the subnational level.
He said the Leadership Centre would approach leadership development as a means of improving institutional performance, positioning the academy as a centre of excellence for subnational capacity development, as well as a think-tank and global platform for leadership and innovation.
According to Shittu, the academy would serve three categories of state leadership: executive and strategic leadership, cabinet leadership, and institutional leadership.
The executive and strategic leadership category covers governors and their deputies, while cabinet leadership includes secretaries to state governments, chiefs of staff, commissioners, special advisers, senior special assistants, local government chairmen and officials occupying specialised positions.
The institutional leadership category covers heads of service, permanent secretaries, directors-general, heads of agencies and departments, board chairpersons and senior technical officers, including those serving in acting capacities.
Shittu explained that the academy would deliver three flagship programs tailored to these leadership categories.
He said the Governors’ Strategic Leadership and Legacy Programme would support serving, incoming and outgoing governors and their deputies through executive leadership training, policy retreats and structured induction programs covering leadership transitions, governance delivery and institutional legacy.
The Cabinet Leadership Program, he added, would strengthen state executive councils in policy formulation and implementation, while the Institutional Governance and Sustainability Program would equip senior public officials with the skills to promote administrative continuity, integrity and excellence.
He said the programs would cover strategic leadership, public-sector ethics, negotiation, adaptive management, change implementation and sector-specific governance challenges through 12 sector hubs, including public finance, health, agriculture, infrastructure, trade and investment, security, digital development and climate.
The NGF Director-General said the academy would engage Nigerian and international faculty members and resource persons with practical and comparative governance experience.
He added that participants would work with a common competency framework, with their progress assessed through individual action plans under the academy’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, Learning and Feedback (MEAL-F) framework.
Shittu further disclosed that the academy would establish innovation and foresight laboratories to develop practical governance solutions through research, data analysis, case studies, policy briefs and design thinking.
It would also provide technical advisory services to state governments in areas such as institutional reforms, fiscal sustainability, investment facilitation and performance management.
The academy would equally establish peer-learning platforms and communities of practice to enable state governments to exchange experiences, share policy innovations and replicate successful reforms.
He said gender equality, disability and social inclusion, alongside digital technology, data and sustainability, would be integrated across all its programs.
On its delivery system, Shittu said the academy would adopt a blended learning approach combining online courses through the NGF electronic Learning Management System (eLMS) with physical executive sessions and peer-learning forums.
The digital platform would provide virtual classrooms, mobile and offline access, artificial intelligence-enabled learning tools, data analytics, performance-tracking dashboards and digital certification across the 36 states.
It would also be integrated with the NGF Repository, NGF e-Library and the Forum’s website.
The academy would operate under a two-tier governance structure comprising a Governing Council and the NGF Academy and Leadership Directorate.
While the Governing Council would oversee program quality, approve work plans and budgets, and ensure institutional accountability, the directorate would coordinate program implementation, stakeholder engagement, monitoring and evaluation.
According to Shittu, the implementation framework would run from 2026 to 2036 in four phases, beginning with strategic planning, institutional arrangements, curriculum development, pilot programs, and partnership building.
The second phase, covering October 2026 to June 2027, would focus on strengthening operational structures, developing the digital learning platform, engaging faculty and technical personnel, and formalising partnerships.
The third phase, from July 2027 to June 2030, would involve expanding leadership and sectoral programs, applied research and governance advisory services.
The final phase, scheduled for July 2030 to June 2036, would focus on nationwide program delivery, the establishment of regional learning hubs and the operationalization of an NGF Leadership Endowment and Innovation Fund to ensure long-term sustainability.
Shittu said the academy would collaborate with national, continental and international institutions in curriculum development, research, faculty exchange, technical expertise and program financing.
Potential partners include the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Nigerian universities, government agencies and private-sector organisations, as well as continental institutions such as the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and the Kenya School of Governance.
Other prospective international partners include the Forum of Federations, the World Bank Institute, Oxford Blavatnik School of Government, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the United Nations Development Program, UNICEF, the Ford Foundation and the Clinton Foundation.
He said the NGF Academy ultimately aspired to extend its operations beyond Nigeria to West Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and the wider continent, with the ambition of becoming a leading institution for subnational governance in Africa.
In the immediate term, the academy would operate within the existing institutional structures of the Governors’ Forum, with plans to become a full-fledged subsidiary of the organization in the long term.
The NGF said the initiative would provide a common platform to strengthen public-sector leadership, improve policy implementation, and promote effective governance across Nigeria’s subnational governments.
