National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has distributed food items donated by King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre from Saudi Arabia to 2,056 Vulnerable households in Kano State.
The food items include 25kg rice, 25kg beans, two litre of vegetable oil, 4kg of “masa vita” flour and 2kg of tomato paste among others.
At the flag-off ceremony yesterday, the director-general of NEMA, Zubaida Umar, said the donation was to assist the most vulnerable people in the state given the current food insecurity driven by economic downturn which has impacted a substantial segment of the population of Nigeria.
Represented by the director of special duties, Fatima Kassim, the NEMA boss said the food baskets will be handed over to the already enumerated individual household heads jointly enumerated by NEMA and the Kano State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).
According to her, each household is expected to have 59.8 kilograms basket of food items consisting of 25kg of rice, 25kg of beans, 4kg of masa vita flour, two litres of vegetable oil, 2kg of tomato paste, 0.8kg of seasoning cubes and salt.
“At a later date we are going to perform the same distribution exercise in Jigawa and Katsina states”, she added.
She, however, warned beneficiaries not to sell the items but make good of the intervention to bring succour to their families.
In his speech, representative of King Salman Centre, Abdulrahaman Abdulaziz, said the relief is in an effort to provide relief of 5,662 baskets in some selected cities of Nigeria to support beneficiaries in alleviating their sufferings.
He said the distribution is an extension of relief and humanitarian efforts provided by the government of Saudi Arabia.
“Under the leadership of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and custodian of the two Holy Mosques in Medina and Mecca as well as the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Mohammad Bin Salmann to support Nigeria,” he said.
Kano State deputy governor, Dr Abdulsalam Aminu thanked the king for the donation, urging the beneficiaries to extend the love to others around them by sharing what was given to them especially in this hard time.
