TheCable

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has launched a non-residential fellowship programme (NRFP) to deepen the socio-economic development.

Yinka Iyinolakan, head, corporate communications, NESG, said this in a statement released on Wednesday.

Iyinolakan said NESG inducted 18 scholars and five renowned faculty and senior fellows in various academic backgrounds in NRFP to build ties between evidence-based research and policy advocacy.

Asue Ighodalo, NESG chairman, said the initiative would contribute to development in every sphere.

“It is important for quality research to find an outlet which guarantees its implementation. The need for much stronger ties between evidence and policymaking informed the creation of the Non-Residential Fellowship Programme, which will promote the dissemination of quality research output which fosters the nation’s socio-economic development,” Ighodalo said.

He explained that to make the right policy choices and ensure quality recommendations, the initiative was formed as it aligns with their basic role to act as a watchdog that generates reliable evidence.

Doyin Salami, project director of the NFRP and chairman, Presidential Economic Council, said that the NESG had spent the past 30 years as an advocacy group but deemed it fit to transform into a think tank, understanding the dynamic nature of the policy environment.

“It is in the context of becoming a think tank that this non-residential fellowship programme is to be situated. A think tank, as the name suggests, is about reflection, research, dissemination, and influence. We have to reflect on the problems that our country and indeed the world is facing,” he said.

Salami also highlighted that this is a step in working towards the course to serving the country’s best interests in providing outstanding solutions through thorough research.

“The NESG has always been, and through this programme, remains committed to serving Nigeria’s best interests. And I think it is important that we really should put that on the table… that for the NESG it is always about Nigeria’s best interests,” he added.

“Our definition of Nigeria’s best interests sometimes does not find immediate resonance. But one of the things we have found over the years is that eventually…with all the delays, some of the ideas that the NESG has canvassed have become the fulcrum of policy.”

The think-tank advocacy group said expects inductees to collectively produce research outputs in two years and engage in policy advocacy that will help chart a pathway for Nigeria’s sustainable economic development.