24 March 2016, Lagos – The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has committed $200 million (about N40 billion) for the education, water supplies, sanitation and health care of the North-East and the entire Lake Chad Basin.
This was disclosed by the Nigerian Mission Director of the agency, Michael Harvey on Wednesday in Maiduguri.
He said a large part of the fund would be used to provide these facilities for about 2.2 million displaced persons in camps of North-East sub-region of the country.
He said the agency will address malnutrition among children in various camps, before Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) could return to their respective communities in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
Harvey who disclosed this while addressing IDPs at the Bakasi camp during a visit to assess the state of water supplies, healthcare and education services, promised that the agency would not leave them alone.
The agency director, who was also at Buzu Quarters and Ngimari Farm Centre within Maiduguri metropolis, said: “Regionally our financial commitments to displaced persons
in the North-East sub-region of Nigeria, is over $200 million so far.
He said the agency was not going to stop at this as it was willing to increase the assistance if need be.
He however noted that the agency cannot solve the whole problems of IDPs, insisting that there is a huge role for the government of Nigeria
at the federal and state levels to play before the IDPs could return to their homes.
Harvey also added: “But the EU and British government with the U.S, the other two major donors are also involved in this humanitarian assistance to 2.2 million IDPs in the Northeast.
He said those four agencies with the UN, I think there is very good partnership. But as you look around, it is a huge task.
- This Day
