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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has pledged to support Nigeria with $270 million to tackle poverty.
This was contained in a statement by the Deputy Director of Information, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Rhoda Ishaku Iliya.
UNICEF Country Representative, Christian Mundate, stated this when he led the Chief of Health & HIV/AIDS, Eduardo Celades, to the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, yesterday in Abuja.
Mundate assured the minister of technical support to build capacity of the Ministry’s staff and support the development of a humanitarian response protocol for Nigeria to guide players to facilitate effective coordination.
In addition, he said UNICEF would 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.
On her part, 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 FG 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 assuring them of the commitment to transparency and accountability in all the processes of the Ministry, she told them that the engagement with partners like UNICEF will continue until Government achieves its target.
