Nigeria loses N38trn to climate change – ActionAid

ActionAid Nigeria Director of Resource Mobilization and Innovation Andrew Mamedu, has said that Nigeria loses its 2 years budget amounting to N38 trillion to climate change. 

Mamedu who stated this on Friday at the launch of the Earth walk campaign in commemoration of the International Day of Rural women, explained that on the Economic front in April 2026, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) studies showed that climate change would cost Nigeria between 6% and 30% of its GDP by 2050.

Mamedu stated that this year’s global climate negotiations at the summit in Glasglow are the last chance for world leaders to decide what our future would shape into.

He however, noted that getting the voices of rural women who are more endangered and are being hit forcefully by this disaster is critical as they’re not opportune to attend these crucial talks. 

He noted that 70% of Nigerians are smallholder farmers with low grade technologies, adding that women have been affected by failed intervention promises by the government and private organizations, unpredictable climate which hinders women who play major essential roles in food system from production to distribution which is likely to hamper and lead to heightened experience of hunger, under nutrition and food scarcity. 

He said the COVID-19 pandemic have aggravated food security in many parts of the nation and the world at large, which incurs significant loss of income  where globally approximately 2.37 billion people were denied access to adequate food during the pandemic, an increase of almost 20 percent or 320 million people in just one year. 

He said the United Nations Secretary General who are in collaboration with the ongoing project called for transformation and sustainable ways of transforming food system, to enable people have access to healthy diets that contribute to the restoration of nature. 

He recognized the efforts of government and others in the agricultural sector and innovative approach to support rural women’s livelihood.

He also called for collaboration of government and civil society to scale up gender responsive climate resilient agriculture, which is an alternative to industrial agriculture that does not benefit women, small scale farmers, support food security, ecosystem and the nation at large.