The Nigeria Governors’ Forum has approved a 10-year plan, spanning 2026 to 2036, to establish a leadership academy as a flagship directorate within its secretariat, offering training, research and advisory services to improve governance and policy delivery across the 36 states.

NGF, in a statement on Monday, signed by its Director-General, Abdullateef Shittu, explained that the initiative was designed to provide executive capacity development, applied research, governance advisory services, digital innovation and peer-learning opportunities for state-level political and administrative leaders.

It stated, “The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has approved the establishment of the NGF Academy & 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 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.

“It 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 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.”

NGF said the academy would introduce specialised leadership programmes for serving, incoming and outgoing governors and their deputies, featuring executive training, policy retreats and structured induction to strengthen governance, ensure smooth transitions and promote sustainable institutional legacies.

It continued, “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 to translate government policies into measurable development outcomes.

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

“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.

“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.”

NGF Director-General said the academy would support state governments in institutional reforms, fiscal sustainability, investment promotion and performance management, while providing platforms for sharing governance innovations.

He added that its programmes would combine online courses with physical training sessions, incorporating gender inclusion, digital innovation and sustainability.

The NGF stated, “The 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.”

Shittu said the academy would expand its leadership training, research and governance advisory programmes between 2027 and 2030, before extending nationwide operations and establishing regional learning hubs and an endowment fund by 2036.

He added that the initiative would partner with national, continental and international institutions, including NIPSS, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the World Bank Institute, UNDP and UNICEF, to strengthen research, training and governance capacity.

The statement read in part, “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.” Punch