N3trn needed to combat disasters in 2020 — NEMA

The National Emergency Management Agency said N3 trillion would be needed to tackle disasters across the 36 states in 2020.

NEMA Director-General Mustapha Maihaja said this at a stakeholders’ meeting weekend when the agency released a National Disaster Risk Management Policy.

It is projected that it we continue with the current business as usual, an estimated amount of N3 trillion will be required to curb and respond to disasters across the 36 states in Nigeria in 2020, and this will be mainly for providing short term relief and replacement of damaged infrastructures.

“For many states across the country, taking the disaster-risk reduction (DRR) to a higher level and preventing disasters will be a challenging task,” he said.

He said the policy document outlined the framework providing directions for supporting measures to strengthen communities, individuals, businesses and institutions to minimize the adverse effects of disasters in Nigeria.

He said the document would also provide a direction for enhancing the ability prevent, prepare, respond and recover from disasters across all elements in the country, hence it also responds to all DRR challenges by articulating the renewed commitment of government to DRR.

He noted that the policy document was focused on four priority areas of awareness, governance, capacity and resilience.

He said the document would guide the development and implementation of disasterrisk management plans and programmes of states and local governments.