Vice President Kashim Shettima has called for stronger international collaboration to advance Nigeria’s Human Capital Development 2.0 (HCD 2.0) strategy.
He reaffirmed the commitment of President Bola Tinubu’s administration to placing human potential at the center of national development.
Shettima made the call virtually at a high-level roundtable held on the sidelines of the 2025 World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings.
He emphasized that the success of HCD 2.0 would hinge on data-driven, evidence-based interventions and sustained political will.
The HCD 2.0 programme is designed to elevate Nigeria’s Human Capital Index (HCI) and prepare the country to tackle both national and global challenges, including climate change and digital transformation.
The Vice President noted that the meeting was necessitated by the urgency to invest in the Nigerian people and the recognition that true national wealth lies not in natural resources but in human potential.
ALSO READ: Bauchi NUJ dissociates self from Illegitimate awards, warns public
“This meeting, for us, is not just another item on our global agenda. It is a continuation of a journey whose beginnings I had the privilege of witnessing about seven years ago. True national wealth is found not in natural resources, but in human potential,” he said.
“We will offer our HCD 2.0 Strategy the political backing it deserves to become a national priority, and His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has never wavered on this.”
ALSO READ: Bauchi NUJ dissociates self from Illegitimate awards, warns public
The session featured key stakeholders from the World Bank, including Executive Director Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed; Regional Director for Human Development in Western and Central Africa, Trina Haque; Senior Social Protection Specialist and Regional Task Team Leader for the Africa West and Central region, Tina George; and Chief Economist for Human Development at the World Bank Group, Norbert Shady.
The Nigerian delegation included the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President and Chair of the HCD Core Working Group, Senator Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, and the Special Adviser to the President on National Economic Council & Climate Change and National Coordinator of the HCD programme, Rukaiya El-Rufai.
Shettima reiterated the federal government’s determination to ensure the continuity and deepening of the HCD agenda.
“Government is a continuum. Nowhere is this truer than in programmes that demand patience, vision, and long-term commitment—programmes such as our Human Capital Development programme,” he noted.
He revealed that under HCD 2.0, six priority indicators from the health, education, and labour force sectors have been selected as “quick wins” to guide policy interventions and track measurable progress.
“We have carefully curated priority indicators and developed an HCD Dashboard to track them. This allows us to make informed policy decisions and measure our progress against tangible benchmarks,” Shettima said.
The Vice President also reaffirmed the administration’s resolve to remain transparent and results-oriented to achieve measurable outcomes.
“We will continue to hold ourselves accountable and press forward toward our bold goal to elevate Nigeria among the top 80 countries in the Human Capital Index rankings,” he said.
Shettima further called on the World Bank and other development partners to support the availability of disaggregated, state-level Human Capital Index data to enable more targeted interventions.
Stressing the need for equity and inclusiveness in implementing the HCD 2.0 strategy, he added, “We are leaving no sub-national entity in Nigeria behind. Some states have already set a template for others, having localized the HCD strategies to align with their people’s peculiarities while, of course, aligning them with the national strategy.”
The World Bank representatives at the meeting committed to strengthening the bank’s partnership with Nigeria to improve the country’s Human Capital Index and proposed senior-level stakeholder engagements to identify optimal areas for technical support.
The session also featured speeches from representatives of Nigerian state governments, including Akwa Ibom and Lagos, as well as representatives of other local and international development organizations.
and then