The Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Mrs Adejoke Orelope, says the proposed bill to establish Sustainable Development Fund (SDF) will amount to duplication of duty.
Orelope said this during her presentation before the House Committee on SDGs at a public hearing on a bill for an act to establish SDF, yesterday in Abuja.
The proposed SDF bill is charged with the responsibility for imposing, operating and maintaining the SDGs in Nigeria.
Orelope said that the bill would create confusion and conflict among organisations charged with the responsibility and the mandate the proposed bill intend to cover.
The SSA said that she was in support of additional funding for the SDGs office, adding that instead of a new management board, the office should be strengthened by increasing its funding through appropriation.
According to her, the Federal Government wants existing agencies strengthened rather than create another one and  President Muhammadu Buhari is looking at Oransanye reports to reduce our recurrent expenditure.
Orelope affirmed the commitment of SDGs office in the management of SDGs in the country, adding that the whole essence of raising money for accelerating the process of SDGs was to ensure its meet the requisite target.
She called for a more innovative way of realising the SDGs, adding that there was need to guarantee effective coordination of SDGs in Nigeria.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, however, said that the SDGs aimed at unlocking and empowering human development to bring changes to the country.
He said that the planned establishment of the SDF would come with more funding, adding that the bill was timely because it would increase productivity and participation.
Rep. Rotimi Agunsoye, the Chairman, House Committee on SDG, said that the bill was to ensure development in the country, adding that it would help the country in the areas of economic growth and social development among others.
“The bill is not only a positive signal that we are on course to attain SDGs but a timely action that will promote accountability and proper allocation of fund for the attainment of SDGs in the six geopolitical zone.
“We need a legal framework for its efficiency, accountability and responsibility, we need all the cooperation to achieve the needed aim,” he said.
The President, Albino Foundation, Mr Jake Epelle, said that people living with disability were critical stakeholders but had not been carried along.
He said that in the proposed bill, priority should be given to health, education and economic empowerment to persons with disability.