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God created us from a
single pair of male and female, into nations, colours,
races and tribes so that we may cherish and
differentiate one another. In His Mercy and Wisdom, He
gives us diversity to
test
our capacity for friendship and accentuates the need for
unity and self-esteem. The days of ignorance were the
days of feuds and falsehood attitude of trying to forget
these differences rather than understand them

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AREWA CENTER FOR
EXCELLENCE
The purpose of Arewa Center
for Excellence is to delineate,
nurture and enhance northern Nigeria’s regional economic
ecosystems and regional innovation clusters. It is doing so by
investing in six major opportunities. A center of excellence
(COE) brings together people from different disciplines and
provides shared facilities/resources. It is sometimes called a
“competency center” or “capability center” in academia.
Because COEs are designed to drive
innovation and improvement, they also create an organizational
structure that encourages the different members to measure,
experiment, and push each other forward. By promoting more
transparency and more shared results, they can be a powerful way
for the organization to align around business goals, rather than
individual departmental metrics.
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Develop Cutting-Edge Online Data Tools
The Center is focusing on developing its Regional
Decision Maker (RDM) data-driven platform. RDM will be designed
to help Arewa identify regional innovation, entrepreneurship and
commercialization opportunities. ACRD is working in partnership
to develop this dynamic and powerful decision-making tool. Plans
are underway to develop map layers that will show geographic
clustering for industry and occupation clusters via the use of
spatial statistical techniques. When fully launched, RDM will
provide a set of value-added data layers and customized tools
for use in supporting the entire Arewa regional planning.
2. Engage Key
Target Groups in Using and Refining RDM Tools
RDM represents a powerful tool for
mapping regional assets and opportunities. But, ensuring that these tools
are seen as a valuable, practical and user-friendly tool for guiding
decision-making by State leaders in northern region is equally important. As
such, the ACRD is seeking to enhance the skills of individuals and groups
that want to utilize the RDM. Activities being planned include:
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Website Development & Launch,
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Webinars and Face-to-Face Training, and
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Technical Support. Collectively, these important
activities are intended to help the Center strengthen the relevance and
utility of the RDM to key stakeholders.
3. Produce
a Comprehensive Arewa Region Economic Profile and Other Informational Resources
To maximize the value
of the RDM to a wider array of people and organizations, ACRD
will develop a series of user-friendly Economic Profiles that
offer Arewa region attractive document that can guide the
region's economic development plans and activities. In this
regard, our Center will partner both States and Local Government
to develop Information Briefs that are intended to provide local
economic development outlook, timely information on a variety of
local and State demographic, socioeconomic, education, economic
and workforce development. The briefs will be couple of
flyer-pages to include visually effective graphs, charts and/or
tables, and be written for lay audiences. ACRD will create peer
group regional development program to be called Leading Edge
Practices (LEEP), a navigational tool designed to assist States
in the region in learning from one another, leading to new
strategies for accelerating innovation and collaboration.
4. Implement
Programs that Build on Regional Opportunities
Introducing innovative programs
that complement and add value to all States within the Arewa
region’s industry and occupational clusters.
5. Strengthen
Arewa Regional Collaboration and Innovation Networks
The mainstay of the ACRD Center of Excellence’s
collaboration work centers on its Strategic Doing initiative.
This program will focus on the use of States within the regional
networks to accelerate innovation, partnership and
collaboration. Strategic Doing quickly develops sophisticated
collaborations that help advance open innovation across
organizational and political boundaries within the entire
region. Strategic Doing ignites the spark of regional
innovation, partnership and collaboration enabling people in
loosely-joined, open networks to think and act strategically. In
partnership with Small Business Development Center’s across the
World, this program showcases the pivotal role of second-stage
firms to employment growth and prosperity and development growth
strategies, with the goal of making Arewa region an investment
destination.
6. Building Capacity of Local
and State Governments to effectively Address Economic and
Environmental issues
The mainstay of the ACRD
environmental considerations in the overall policy-making,
planning, and development process at local and regional level
are:
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Building
capacity of local and States governments within the region
to effectively address specific environmental issues,
concerns, and strategic measures in areas like agriculture,
transport, waste management, and freshwater availability
that have significant relevance and implications in the
context of sustainable regional development;
Responding to emerging issues of
concern, such as climate change and human health impacts;
and
Fostering community-based natural resource/environment
management to achieve the United Nations (UN) Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs).
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“Given the emergence of
new regional dynamics in development policy and
practice, Arewa region MUST fine-tune current regional
development perspectives and
to develop new ones that are not only more in sync with
the present and future global context but with the
governance systems being currently adopted that are
becoming more and more decentralized and grassroots
oriented. States Governors within the Arewa region must
come together to create and adopt the Arewa Regional
Economic Plan with emphasis on a balanced approach to
development and opportunity for all diversity
irrespective of one’s tribe, social class, religious
belief and even political affiliation; and establish
targets for economic growth of the entire region taking
advantage of our Demographic Shifts, which will fuel the
growth of new sectors, markets, and service lines in our
communities. The ability of our diversity to build
strength and unity is the power that will propel the
region and consequently, the Nigerian industry, into new
dimensions of performance and inclusive growth.
Catalyzing Inclusive Growth Through ICT-enabled
solutions in healthcare, education, financial services
and public services can drive socio-economic development
and inclusion of more than 30 million citizens each
year, faster, cheaper and more effectively than
traditional models. The economic plan should be built on
current regional opportunities, collaboration and
innovation linking States macroeconomic models with
regional development and economic plan termed: Regional
Econometric Model”…President
ACRD
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