The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has distributed rice and relief materials to internally displaced persons (IDPs) across states that were recently ravaged by flood.
The Director General (DG) of NEMA, Zubaida Umar announced this in a post she shared on her official X account on Thursday night.
“Today, we officially handed over the 18,653 bags of 10kg rice donated by the Bank of Industry (BoI) and 50 tons of humanitarian relief aid donated by the Government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to beneficiary states,” Umar said.
“For the Bank of Industry donation, 3,850 bags of rice were allotted to Katsina State, 3,634 bags to Zamfara, 3,500 bags to Imo, 3,000 bags to Benue, 3,000 bags to Jigawa and 1,669 bags to Plateau.
“Of these, 10,484 bags will be picked from our Kano warehouse while 8,169 bags will be picked up from our Abuja warehouse.
“The 50-ton donation from the UAE is made up of 1,696 cartons and each carton contains 20 assorted food items, making a complete food basket.
“Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Enugu, Kano, Ondo, Rivers, and Sokoto states were allotted 160 cartons each while Borno gets 256 cartons.”
Umar said the selection of the beneficiary states was based on the number of IDPs in each and the urgency and severity of needs of persons impacted by disasters.
In total, according to the Director General of NEMA, the donations were shared among 16 states across Nigeria.
She said that the donations of relief materials by both BOI and the Government of UAE symbolize the manifestation of deep sympathy for people severely impacted by disasters on the one hand and a long-standing bilateral relationship between Nigeria and the UAE on the other.
Umar said the gesture further entrenches the essence of multi-stakeholder and multi-national approaches to disaster management.
She explained that as governments at all levels try to mitigate the impact of disasters, particularly flooding which has affected over one million persons across 180 local government areas, displaced over 600,000 persons and caused 280 deaths, the donations by both BOI and the Government of UAE came at the right time.
Umar added that the donations will also go a long way in complementing the efforts of the Federal Government in providing succour to persons affected by flood and other disasters across Nigeria.
“I wish to most sincerely thank the donors and urge the beneficiary states to ensure that the donated items are judiciously and transparently distributed to persons affected by flood and other disasters to mitigate their suffering,” she concluded.
