NEC Approves Over ₦83bn For Flood Mitigation
The National Economic Council (NEC) has approved the release of over ₦83 billion for emergency preparedness and flood mitigation initiatives across the country.
The approval was granted at the NEC meeting chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima in Abuja, on Thursday.
Addressing State House correspondents shortly after the meeting, the Governor of Cross River State, Bassey Otu, said although over ₦166 billion was proposed to be deducted from the Anticipatory Action Trust Fund (AATF), the meeting endorsed the release of ₦83.2 billion.
The fund will support various flood mitigation measures, including early warning systems and emergency preparedness to reduce the devastating effects of seasonal flooding.
The meeting agreed that it was time to be proactive instead of being reactive to disasters.
Shettima said during the opening remarks that the NEC must henceforth be judged by what changes it brought in the lives of ordinary Nigerians, especially farmers, manufacturers, vulnerable citizens, unemployed young people and children. 0
He stated, “When this Council last met, I called our economy a workshop. A place of measurement and correction. A place where plans are turned into systems, and systems into institutions, before any of it becomes prosperity.
“A workshop is judged by one thing. Not by the plans pinned to its walls, but by what comes off the bench. We return to that bench today. Not to admire the image, but to ask the question that honours it. Is the work taking shape?”
