The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) are working together to host a three-day executive leadership retreat in Kigali, Rwanda.
Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, invited the first and second term governors of Nigeria to the retreat, which took place from August 24 to 26, 2023.
The program’s goal was to promote discussion on reimagining leadership and utilising cutting-edge technology while taking cues from Rwanda’s remarkable transformation.
The programme, which finished on Saturday, August 26, was designed with the aim of creating transformative leadership and facilitating honest, frank, and open debate among participants on effective leadership, according to a joint statement from the Nigeria Governors Forum and the UNDP.
Themed ‘Reimagining leadership in a fast-changing world’, participants representing 19 Nigerian States, engaged in sessions that explored Rwanda’s successful investment destination transformation in digital technology, urban planning and socio-economic transformation, capping off with a candid private dialogue with President Kagame.
“As a non-partisan organisation and policy arm, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum organised this gathering with the objective of fostering transformative leadership and facilitating honest, frank and open dialogue to shape the discourse on these cross-cutting themes”, said Asishana Okauru, Director General of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat.
Mohamed Yahya, the UNDP Resident Representative in Nigeria, highlighted that the retreat “offers an opportunity to reimagine Nigeria’s leadership to achieve transformation and nationwide sustainable development” in recognition of these complexities and in accordance with UNDP’s mandate as the leading UN agency on development.
The retreat also placed a strong emphasis on learning through dialogue, including sessions on rethinking leadership, leading systems, leading oneself, and leading to deliver.
Learning through observation was also a key component of the program, which included an interactive program exploring Rwanda’s emergence as a top investment destination through interactions with the innovation hub Norrsken House, the Rwanda Development Board, and the Mayor of the City of Kigali.