The North-East Development Commission (NEDC) has donated the sum of N3billion to the Borno State Government for onward distribution to small business owners in Maiduguri, who were severely affected by the recent flood disaster that ravaged the Borno State capital city last Tuesday.
The interventionist commission also donated another N50million for the cleaning of the palace of the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai Elkanemi, which was overtaken by the flood.
The donations were announced on Tuesday when the chairman of Board of NEDC, Maj. Gen. Paul Tarfa (rtd), led members of the Board and the management team of the Commission to pay a sympathy visit to the governor of Borno State over the flood incident.
Maj. Gen Tarfa (rtd) prayed that such incident that occurred in Borno State would never happen again, even in other parts of the country.
He said, “We are all together in this issue. To say we are here to commiserate with you is not right thing, but to commiserate with all of us. We saw what happened, we heard it, we felt it and we are still dealing with it. So, we are very sorry your excellency and pray that God will give you the wisdom and strength to face the situation.
“Even though this has happened, there will still be lessons to learn from what happened. What is it that has happened? What is it that we have to learn now?” the NEDC chairman stated.
Also, speaking during the visit, the Managing Director of the NEDC, Mohammed Alkali, said the Board made some key resolutions on how it can intervene in the situation as a result of what happened.
He said the first point of the resolutions was how small businesses that are severely affected can be assisted, adding that a look at Borno State showed that most of the people affected were small business owners or low-income residents.
“After the review, the Board approved that the sum of N3 billion be released to Borno Government for distribution to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and small businesses that were affected by the flood.
“The Board also decided that the Commission should be fully involved in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of affected facilities in the areas of supply of construction materials such as zinc, woods, among others. Repairs of damaged infrastructure, roads, bridges, among others. The commission is also to handle issues like fumigation of the city and issues of sanitation, health, water and hygiene.
“So once the full assessment is done and the report is out ,the Commission will get involved along with other partners to assist Borno in those areas as the case may be. Also in terms of immediate support, because people have lost whatever they have, the Board also directed that we should provide 20,000 bags of 25kg of rice, 20,000 cartons of Macaroni and 10,000 cartons of vegetable oil,” Alkali said.
Responding, Borno State governor, Babagana Zulum, thanked the Commission for coming to sympathise with the State Government. He urged NEDC to be more visible in discharging its responsibilities to the people of Borno, especially the victims of the flood.
He recalled the numerous projects the commission had executed in the state and said that the most important thing to do was to ensure that before the end of the Board’s tenure the state government and the commission could plan and work together.
