Saturday, August 31, 2024 - The World Food Programme and the Economic Community of West African States have provided multi-purpose cash and nutritious food worth $1m to cushion the effect of food crisis and malnutrition challenges in North-West Nigeria.
Partners in the deal said the support was
part of the stabilisation fund put together to help address the food crisis in
the region.
The Deputy Head of Programme, WFP Abuja,
Manuela Reinfeld, while speaking at the launch of ECOWAS-FMHAPA-WFP
stabilisation project phase 2 in Katsina on Friday, said the WFP supported the
fund with about $600,000.
She said the sum was to cover associated
costs to address malnutrition challenges, especially for pregnant lactating
women and their children under age two.
“We are also trying to help them address the
root causes of malnutrition. We are helping them with resilient building
activities and we are targeting women.
“Here in the North-West, we will be
distributing about 5,000 metric tonnes, out of which 2,000 will come to
Katsina. This intervention from ECOWAS is a donation of $1m, out of which WFP
has supplemented this with about $600,000 to cover associated costs,” she
stated.
She remarked that the $1m was directly
going to the beneficiaries, as they would be provided with wheat grains for the
next three months.
According to Reinfeld, a similar programme
will be extended to other local government areas towards the end of the year.
On his part, the Permanent Representative of
Nigeria to ECOWAS and Chairperson of the ECOWAS Permanent Representative
Committee, Musa Nuhu, said ECOWAS established the stabilisation fund to assist
victims of terrorism, which was expanded to include those affected by banditry.
“So it was the ECOWAS Commission that came
up with the idea of setting aside $1m to be given to Nigeria every year so that
it will come up with a programme to provide social alleviation initiatives for
victims of insecurity in the North-East and North-West.
“The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and
Poverty Alleviation in Nigeria has the statutory responsibility to attend to
the humanitarian needs of our citizens. That is why ECOWAS is always linked up
with the humanitarian affairs ministry to come up with modalities for the
implementation,” he said.
The Kastina State Government, Dikko Radda,
commended ECOWAS, WFP and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs for the support,
saying the project would empower and transfer best practices to the state’s
institutions during its implementation
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of
Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Olumuyiwa Enitan, said
beneficiaries of the programme were carefully selected in line with global best
practices as they were the most vulnerable in the state.
He declared that 14,694 vulnerable people
were selected from Kastina and Sokoto States, adding that 7,347 beneficiaries
were selected from two local government areas in Katsina State.
According to Enitan, these efforts have the
ultimate goal of ensuring a future where peace, stability and prosperity are
not just aspirations or mere wishful thinking, but reality for all.
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