The Managing Director of the World Bank, Mrs Sri Indrawati, on Tuesday stated the global bank remains committed to helping the Federal Government rebuild the North East.
The World Bank boss, who is in Nigeria on a two-day working visit also stated that her discussions with top government officials will focus on job creation and adding value to the nation’s economy.
She was received at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport by officials of the Ministry of Finance.
The UNDP Country Representative, Fatma Samoura, had last week revealed the global bank’s decision to allocate 800 million dollars to address poverty issues in the north east, during a meeting with government officials at the Borno State Government House.
The humanitarian, who is in Maiduguri for a 2-day visit stated that the UNDP is interested in making contingency plans against the coming rainy season and issues around resettlement of the internally displaced in their original homes.
“We are going very close to the rainy season and with the rainy season comes epidemic outbreak. The UN would be ready to support all the government and local agencies’ efforts to prepare contingency planning to avoid the situation of last year where several cases of water diarrhoea was reported,” Samoura stated.
The Country Representative stated that the UNDP is finding it difficult mobilizing resources for Nigeria in view of the crisis situation in other parts of the world which she stated is costing traditional donors a lot.
She appealed for support from government at all levels, explaining that the humanitarian response plan at the moment is 10% funding as the country office has so far received only 24 million dollars out of the $248 million budgeted for northeast Nigeria for the year 2016.
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