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The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, on Monday, announced that it had set aside $270 million for Nigerian humanitarian response and emergencies.
The United Nations humanitarian interventions group particularly said the amount would be used to support the country in its humanitarian and poverty alleviation efforts.
Country Representative of UNICEF, Christian Mundate and UNICEF Chief of Health & HIV/AIDS, Eduardo Celades, disclosed this when they paid a courtesy call to the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu in Abuja.
A statement to this effect on Tuesday night by Mrs Rhoda Iliya, Deputy Director of the ministry, said the UNICEF delegation also assured the minister of technical support to build capacity of the ministry’s staff as well as support the development of a humanitarian response protocol for Nigeria to guide all humanitarian actors.
This, the delegation explained, would facilitate effective coordination.
According to the statement, the organisation also assured that it will support the establishment of a National Humanitarian Situation Room or Humanitarian Emergency Operation Centre, H-EOC, to monitor, mitigate and prevent humanitarian emergencies and build resilience in the system.
Responding, the minister, Dr. Betta Edu, informed the delegation that the Federal Government of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was committed to lifting 133 million poor Nigerians out of poverty in a phased approach; especially, the 71 million extremely poor Nigerians who leave under one dollar ninety-five cents a day.
She charged UNICEF to also draw up plans towards supporting the federal government on poverty alleviation.
”Time is of essence and we need to run at the speed of light to roll out social programs that will bring relieve to the burdens of the poor.
“Nigerians are eagerly waiting for full implementation of the renewed hope agenda, the time for intense action is now”, she said
While she assured them of the commitment to transparency and accountability in all the processes of the ministry, she told that the engagement with partners like UNICEF will continue until Government achieves its target.
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