( dpa ) - Nigeria is off track on UN goals to halve poverty and infant death by 2015, Kandeh Yumkella, director general of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), said in Abuja Monday.
Yumkella, who is on a five-day visit to the West African nation, said it was worrisome that even in 2008, the half-way review of the so-called Millennium Development Goals, "no tangible achievement had been recorded" in Nigeria.
"The review showed that Nigeria, like most other countries in Africa, is not on track. My philosophy is that the (goals) are to keep us on track, so that we can measure our efforts in development," he said.
Yumkella stressed that Nigeria had the means to achieve the goals, but needed to organize effectively to achieve the desired results, for example by paying more attention to the diversification of its economy.
Yumkella noted that energy resources were critical to Nigeria's industrial competitiveness, but the effects of climate change, and energy and food crises were having an effect on that. Nigeria needed to act urgently, Yumkella said.