By CrossRiverWatch Admin
The Federal Government on Monday said it plans to raise Five billion Dollars annually to fund its Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Trust Fund, following the approval of the Federal Executive Council for its establishment.
The fund is part of wider efforts by the Government, which plans to expand its social register and lift a projected 158 million Nigerians out of poverty and dire humanitarian needs. There are currently 133 million Nigerians living in multidimensional poverty, while a further 35 million need humanitarian support having suffered different humanitarian crises.
“This is a flexible form of financing that is supposed to help Nigeria adequately respond to humanitarian crises, emergencies, and internal displacement challenges as well as adequately address the issue of poverty in Nigeria,” Dr. Betta Edu, the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, told journalists at the State House on Monday after the FEC meeting.
The funds will be raised from the Government, Donors, Private sectors, Philanthropic individuals, and other innovative forms of resource mobilization, Edu disclosed and explained that a governing board that will monitor the implementation, “will involve key stakeholders that are relevant to the process.”
“This of course is a victory for the poor and indeed, would bring help and succor which the Renewed Hope Agenda stands for.”
She said the council also approved the ratification of the African Charter protocol on the protection of the rights of older persons in Nigeria.
“We have signed up to the African charter and this has made us one of the countries within Africa that has approved that older people be protected and should not be discriminated against at any level,” Edu said.
“This gives older Persons a lot of protection, and the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is interested in their welfare and protecting their rights.”
In September, Edu, while speaking on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly, UNGA, in New York, the United States announced the setting up of the Trust Fund. These are some implementations of some resolutions the President and his Delegation reached at UNGA78 where President Bola Tinubu presented the Renewed Hope Agenda for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty alleviation 2023 – 2030.
Edu said 30 percent of the funding is expected to come from the federal government while the balance of 70 percent is expected from donor agencies, the Private sector, other Nations’ Development partners, etc.
According to the Minister, the fund would have several governing cadres with a structure that would show accountability and transparency, while reducing bureaucracy in putting up an adequate response to humanitarian challenges in any part of the country.
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