Governors Forum Approves Academy, Leadership Centre as Flagship Directorate

**Chuks Okocha **in Abuja

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has approved the establishment of the NGF Academy and Leadership Centre as a flagship Directorate within its secretariat, delivering executive capacity development, applied research, governance advisory services, digital innovation and structured peer learning within a unified, non-partisan institutional framework tailored to the governance realities of all 36 states.

According to a statement by the Director General of the Governors Forum, Dr. Abdullatif Shittu,the concept note prepared by the NGF Secretariat, the NGF Academy is designed to build competent, reform-minded and future-ready leaders able to address emerging governance and development challenges at the subnational level.

Also, the leadership centre approaches leadership capability as the route to institutional performance, rather than as a stand-alone activity, and is positioned as the subnational capacity development centre of excellence of the Forum, and as a think-tank and global interface for leadership and innovation.

The Director General said that the NGF Academy serves three tiers of state leadership. Executive and Strategic Leadership covers Governors and their Deputies, who are addressed together across a single leadership pathway; Cabinet Leadership covers Secretaries to the State Government, Chiefs of Staff, Commissioners, Special Advisers and Senior Special Assistants, Local Government Chairmen and holders of specialised offices; and Institutional Leadership covers Heads of Service, Permanent Secretaries, Directors General, Heads of Agencies and Departments, Board Chairs and senior technical officers, including those serving in acting capacities.

He said that “Programmes are organised as a flagship suite mapped to these tiers. The Governors’ Strategic Leadership and Legacy programme supports serving, new and outgoing Governors and their Deputies through executive leadership programmes, policy retreats and structured induction, across transition, delivery and institutional legacy. The Cabinet Leadership programme strengthens the State Executive Council as the engine of policy design and delivery.

“The Institutional Governance and Sustainability programme supports Heads of Service, Permanent Secretaries and senior officials in sustaining institutional continuity, integrity and administrative excellence, and in strengthening the ability of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to translate government policies into measurable development outcomes.”

According to the Director General, the NGF Academy’s provision covers strategic leadership, public-sector ethics, negotiation strategy, adaptive management, change implementation and sector-specific governance challenges, delivered across 12 sector hubs that range from public finance, health and agriculture to infrastructure, trade and investment, security, digital and climate.

Shittu further said that its faculty and resource persons are drawn from across Nigeria and around the world, bringing practical, lived and comparative governance experience into every programme. Each programme rests on a shared competency framework, with progress measured through a personal action plan reviewed under the Academy’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, Learning and Feedback (MEAL-F) framework.

“In view of this, the NGF Academy establishes innovation and foresight labs to co-create practical governance solutions through applied research, data analysis, case studies, policy briefs and design thinking, positioning it as a subnational think-tank. It offers technical advisory services to State governments, particularly in institutional reform, fiscal sustainability, investment facilitation and performance management, and convenes structured peer-to-peer learning platforms and communities of practice through which State governments exchange experience, share policy innovations and scale successful reforms.

“Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI), together with digital and data and sustainability, run as cross-cutting expectations through every competency domain.

“Delivery is blended and hybrid, combining asynchronous NGF electronic Learning Management System (eLMS) modules with synchronous in-person executive sessions and peer learning forums, with the NGF eLMS as the platform of record. The NGF Secretariat deploys the eLMS to provide virtual classrooms, mobile and offline access, artificial-intelligence-enabled learning tools, data analytics, role-based programmes, performance-tracking dashboards and digital certification across the 36 States, and it integrates with the NGF Repository, the NGF e-Library and the NGF website.

“The NGF Academy operates under a two-tier governance arrangement comprising a Governing Council and the NGF Academy and Leadership Directorate. The Governing Council, drawn from NGF Secretariat leadership, development partners and sectoral experts, oversees programme quality, approves work plans and budgets, and provides institutional accountability. The Directorate coordinates programme implementation, stakeholder engagement, and monitoring and evaluation.

“The implementation framework covers 2026 to 2036 across four phases. The first phase, from April 2026 to September 2026, establishes strategic planning, institutional arrangements, curriculum development, pilot programmes, and collaborations and partnerships. The second phase, from October 2026 to June 2027, strengthens operational structures, develops the digital learning platform, engages faculty and technical personnel, and formalises strategic partnerships. The third phase, from July 2027 to June 2030, expands leadership and sectoral programmes, applied research and governance advisory services. The fourth phase, from July 2030 to June 2036, envisages nationwide programme delivery, regional learning hubs and the operationalisation of an NGF Leadership Endowment and Innovation Fund to support long-term sustainability.

“The NGF Academy works through multi-stakeholder platforms, convening collaboration with flagship strategic partners across national, continental and global tiers for curriculum co-design, applied research, faculty exchange, access to international expertise and co-financing, under formal instruments. Its flagship strategic partners, and prospective partners include, among others: at the national tier, the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), alongside Nigerian universities, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and private-sector organisations; at the continental tier, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the Kenya School of Governance, the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, the African Institute of Strategic Studies and the African Development Institute; and at the global tier, the Forum of Federations (Canada), the National Governors Association (United States), the World Bank Institute, the Oxford Blavatnik School of Government, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the Institute of Social Studies (The Hague), the United Nations Development Programme, UNICEF, the Ford Foundation and the Clinton Foundation.

“Over the long term, the NGF Academy aspires to extend its reach beyond Nigeria, across West Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and the wider continent, with the ambition to serve as a flagship institution for subnational governance in Africa, open to any subnational government that shares this governance structure. This aspiration is aligned with the vision of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.

“In the immediate term, the NGF Academy operates through the Forum’s existing institutional structures, with a view to becoming a full-fledged subsidiary of the Forum over the long term.

“This initiative is expected to provide a common institutional platform for strengthening public-sector leadership, improving policy implementation and promoting more effective governance across Nigeria’s subnational governments.”