The European Union is in a phase of defining its priorities and Nigeria’s ambition could affect the EU’s future decisions on development cooperation globally, according to the EU’s ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ketil Karlsen.

Karlsen told newsmen the EU was in a “phase where we are defining our priorities in the coming years, not only in Nigeria but throughout the world.”

He spoke on the sidelines of a dissemination seminar at the end of a €63.5 million EU-funded project on immunization governance across 23 states that’s lasted eight years.

The project, EU-SIGN, is the third since 2002. EU-funded projects since then have seen more than €200m in development funds invested in Nigeria.

Karlsen said the seminar would provide “input and recommendation into the exact decision as to what we’d support in the future.”

“Looking at the ambition also of the federal government of Nigeria, and this very valuable ambition of lifting 100 million people out of poverty in 10 years, we believe in the need for an integrated approach.

“An approach where basic social services — health and education, in particular — must be at the fore front but combined also with investment in human capital, making sure that people can live in peace and stability and seeing opportunities in terms of jobs for youths in particular.”

He added: “When we look at defining our priorities for the future, this is something that we’d take into consideration — and as always in support of Nigerian initiatives, policies, ambitions.”

Through three projects in the last 17 years, EU taxpayer money had paid for 757 solar refrigerators, 29 four-wheel-drive vehicles and construction and renovation of 46 cold stores and health facilities, including 23 units of 15KVA generators and 26 boreholes.

“It is not possible to solve all the problems in Nigeria with donor cooperation. It is just too big and the population is growing at the same time,” said Karlsen.

“But what we can do through political dialogue, trading relations and development cooperation is to feed into those long-term policies that can make sure when we stand here in a few years’ time, we’ll not have those daunting challenges ahead of us in terms of providing health care, education and basic services for the wonderful population of Nigeria.”

Separate EU-funded projects have run in Nigeria for a long time, all of them “tailored toward addressing the health system,” said Joseph Oteri, director of Disease Control and Immunisation at the National Primary Health Care Development Agency.

“We cannot underestimate the efforts. A lot of solar refrigerators were given — and if you know what solar refrigerator is to immunisation – where you have to get the vaccine very potent. That’s just one.”