It has been about a year since the sustainable development goals came into effect, and countries have had to adopt the sustainability agenda. Leaving the millennium development goals and their emphasis behind to chart a new course focusing on integrating and strengthening health systems would require innovative and strategic thinking at the country and global level, in addition to harnessing the potential for multiple inter-sectoral collaborations for success. Despite the adoption of the sustainability agenda post-2015, the achievements of the millennium development goals must still be leveraged and lessons learnt from both its successes and failures for the sustainable development goals to maximize their potential and result in positive global health outcomes. In the context of sub-Saharan Africa, several strengths, weaknesses and opportunities have been highlighted as either stepping stones or possible obstacles to the attainment of the sustainable development goals on the continent in general and Nigeria in particular. The outlook is optimistic but will call upon the galvanizing of partnerships and collaborations in order to build, strengthen and integrate background health systems for people, the planet and for prosperity. This paper is therefore a general reflection which aims at emphasizing Nigeria and Africa’s challenges with achieving the millennium development goals and delineating the prospects which exist for achieving the sustainable development goals.

sustainable development, global goals, health systems, Nigeria, Africa