Agelong structural and institutional barriers continue to constrain Nigeria’s vast economic potential. When federal institutions allow regions sufficient policy autonomy to innovate and compete, they are more effective in mobilizing resources to drive sustainable development. 

While there has been incremental progress toward decentralization in recent years, many local and state authorities in Nigeria still lack the technical and institutional capacity to catalyze innovation and take advantage of emerging economic opportunities.

One of the strongest arguments for federalism lies in its capacity for policy innovation and diffusion — where successful sub-national policies can be scaled nationally. The NCfD model is a bottom-up approach across all 774 local government areas.

NCfD is a policy lab dedicated to mapping and pioneering new social and economic governance paradigms across Nigeria under three thematic pillars:

• Governance Innovation
• Policy Entrepreneurship
• Cluster-based Development