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The creation of a Disaster Relief Fund has received approval from the Federal Executive Council with the goal of guaranteeing a prompt and effective response to victims of disasters across the country.
This project would streamline help for communities affected by floods, fires, and other emergencies and enable prompt relief and recovery activities across the nation.
This was said on Monday by Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, to State House Correspondents just after the FEC meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, which was presided over by President Bola Tinubu.
“The fund will source finances for flood victims from the three tiers of government and private sector players,” stated Edun.
The minister also disclosed that the council has constituted a Technical Committee to reassess the dams across the country, particularly the Alau Dam in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.
According to Edun, the committee is to be chaired by the Minister of Water Resources, Professor Joseph Utsev, and has other members.
PUNCH Online reports that the Borno capital was flooded two weeks ago following the collapse of the Alau Dam, a critical infrastructure designed to regulate water flow and provide irrigation and drinking water.
According to the National Emergency Management Agency, over 70 per cent of Maiduguri was submerged by the fast-moving water, displacing over a million residents and resulting in 30 casualties.
