The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has disclosed that to tackle and address the various disasters across the county, it would need nearly N3 trillion.
According to Punch, the Director-General, NEMA, Mustapha Maihaja, at a stakeholders’ meeting on Friday in Abuja, where the unveiling of the National Disaster Risk Management Policy happened, the N3 trillion is to purchase relief materials and repair damaged infrastructure,
“It is projected that if we continue with the current business as usual, an estimated amount of N3 trillion will be required to curb and respond to disasters across the 36 states in Nigeria in 2020, and this will be mainly for providing short-term relief and replacement of damaged infrastructure.
“For many states across the country, taking the DRR (disaster-risk reduction) to a higher level and preventing disasters will be a challenging task,” said Mustapha Maihaja.
Meanwhile, NEMA, in order to help improve and evolve disaster management in the country, had developed several plans and guidelines, one of which includes the development of the National Disaster Risk Management Policy.
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The National Disaster Risk Management Policy, which is focused on areas like awareness, governance, capacity and resilience, has directions and measures for supporting and strengthening communities, individuals, businesses and institutions to combat the adverse effects of disasters in Nigeria.
“It provides a direction for enhancing the ability to prevent, prepare, respond and recover from disasters across all elements in the country.” Mustapha Maihaja
However, Mr Maihaja expects the document to serve as a benchmark document that will guide the development and implementation of disaster-risk management plans and programmes across all tiers of governments in the country. He employed all stakeholders to stand by the contents of the policy document to be better positioned to tackle humanitarian needs and prevent economic losses caused by disasters.
