WAIFEM, CBN Opt For Result-based Project Mgt To Enhance Economic Devt

The West African Institute of Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM) and Central Bank of Nigeria have commenced a regional workshop on project management, monitoring and evaluation using results-based management to entrench a culture of effective management of public projects for efficiency and economic development.

Director-general of WAIFEM, Baba Musa noted that the poor management of project outputs and outcomes across Africa can result in the objectives of the project not being realised. “Monitoring and evaluation help in this regard as a continuous management function to assess if progress is made in achieving expected results, spot bottlenecks in implementation, and highlight whether there are any unintended effects or risks,” Dr Musa said yesterday at the opening ceremony of the ongoing workshop in Abuja. The workshop is expected to equip participants with skills in setting up and implementing projects and how the monitoring and evaluation systems work.

The DG said Nigeria, and indeed, the entire West African region are challenged by fiscal deficits – post COVID interventions and spending, cybercrime and bad decisions based on misinformation that are often generated by artificial intelligence.

“All our countries are facing real economic pressure in terms of lack of fiscal space. All the economies are having increasing debt levels. In the global and sub-regional risk profiles, climate change is still one of the issues that is being highlighted. Most recently, we have seen that ill-informed decisions with information generated by artificial intelligence or misinformation are threats facing our region. Of course, there are issues of cybercrime as a result of digitalisation. These are all challenges member countries are facing,” Musa stated.

At the event, the Governor of the central bank, Olayemi Cardoso said monitoring and evaluation framework is the foundation of any development project and is key to its successful implementation in achieving the envisaged project goals and objectives.

Represented by the deputy director, monetary policy department at the CBN Yusuf Bulus, Mr Cardoso said early detection of problems through monitoring & evaluation tools helps prevent waste and abuse of resources.

He said without monitoring & evaluation, areas that need to be treated as a priority would not be very clear. “In such a situation, resources could easily be wasted in areas that are not very significant for project completion and delivery,” he stated.

The CBN governor said transparency and accountability would become the hallmark of any organisation that tracks, analyses and reports project implementation through the monitoring phase. “There is more transparency and accountability.”

The specific objectives include: clarifying key project results levels, developing indicators and targets for each result level, designing a project using logical framework, and developing and implementing an effective monitoring and evaluation system, among others.