N3trn required for disaster management in 2020 –NEMA boss

The Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Engineer Mustapha Maihaja has disclosed that his agency would need N3 trillion to effectively respond to disaster management across the country in 2020.

Maihaja spoke, Friday in Abuja, at the launch of NEMA’s National Disaster Risk Management Policy document in response to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 to 2030, adopted by UN member states in 2015, outlines targets and priorities for action to prevent new and reduce existing disaster risks.

The NEMA boss, while launching the document, said the document is aimed at building safer and more resilient communities to disasters.

He said the policy document concentrated on four priority areas namely: awareness governance, capacity and resilience, in order to support development of strong governance structures in the country.

“Globally, disaster risk management has witnessed improved legislation, awareness, early warning systems, better preparedness, including establishment of sustainable structures and national platforms for disaster risk reduction.

“But, these have not been sufficient, to generate the transformational change required in risk governance. If we truly want to get ahead of the curve of humanitarian need and economic losses we must set up strategies to address underlying risk drivers.

“It is projected that if we continue with the current business as usual, an estimated amount of 3 trillion naira will be required to curb and respond to disasters across the 36 states in Nigeria in 2020.

“This will be mainly for providing short term relief and replacement of damaged infrastructures. To achieve this, we must deploy appropriate instruments and we have developed several plans and guidelines,” he said.

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