21,000 Nigerians affected by flood disasters across the country are to benefit from a Federal Government interest-free loan totalling ₦6.3 billion.
Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Yusuf Sanunu, disclosed this yesterday, at a roundtable event to mark this year’s ‘International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction’, in Abuja.
The event had in attendance Vice-President Kashim Shettima, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, Governor Dauda Lawal, of Zamfara State, lawmakers and international partners among others.
Sununu said the intervention is to mitigate the impact of flooding in the country and address its consequences on food security.
He also disclosed that the Federal Government has also reached 8.1 million households with over ₦300 billion through the Conditional Cash Transfer scheme.
“As a ministry, under the Hope Agenda of Mr. President, the Ministry has, through the National Social Investment Agency, has done very well in improving the resilience of the local community. As of today, in terms of conditional cash transfer, over 8.1 million households in Nigeria have been reached with a total sum of over 300 and something billion naira. This has really improved their capacity, improved their health, and education, and the process will continue.
“We also are planning, together with both national and state level, to improve on our flood mitigating effect by dolling out, in the next few weeks to come, to 21,000 Nigerians free interest, and also free collateral loan of over ₦300,000 each. This is to address the issue of the crisis in farming so as to mitigate the interest of flooding in Nigeria”, he said.
The Minister further disclosed efforts to empower displaced persons through a scheme that will provide a ready market for their products.
“Already, we have planted a programme in collaboration with Federal Minister of Agriculture in addressing the food security of internally-displaced persons, through the collaboration with internally-displaced persons in their camp and host community; the formula of giving the internally-displaced person 30% of the produce produced by the internally displaced persons, and the government will off-take 70%; the money will be given to the internally displaced persons that participated in the scheme as a cash component”, he stated.
Speaking earlier, the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency, (NEMA), Zubaida Umar, said Nigeria, like many nations, continues to experience increasing frequency and intensity of disasters driven by climate change, conflicts, pandemics, and technological risks.
According to her, these events are testing the limits of traditional emergency response systems and demanding a more proactive, preventive, and well-financed disaster risk management framework.
