Food Security: WFP allocates $2.5bn to fight hunger in Nigeria

The World Food Programme (WFP) has approved a sum of $2.5 billion to support President Tinubu’s Zero Hunger Programme under the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.

The WFP Country Director, David Stevesson, gave the hint in Abuja during a working visit to the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu.

Stevesson disclosed that 2.1 million Nigerians have already been captured as beneficiaries of the programme, with the hope to expand working with the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.

He pledged WFP’s support to the Federal Government’s humanitarian and poverty intervention efforts, including the food security agenda and the Zero Hunger Programme, among others.

According to him, the organisation was excited by the robust drive of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s government to eradicate poverty and reduce humanitarian crises in Nigeria and the new energy that the Minister is bringing into the space. The hope is to accomplish a lot together.

Stevesson described Dr Edu’s appointment as Minister as well-deserved, noting that she has immediately hit the ground running with her humanitarian and poverty response programmes, which he is committed to giving full support to.

“I’ve been very impressed in such a short time to hear about the Minister’s leadership in putting together the strategy for the Ministry.

“We talked about zero hunger, we talked about the humanitarian hubs in every local government area in the country, we talked about the world food programmes, and we talked about the potential to support those hubs through buying food locally and also assisting in the cash transfer and food. These are very impressive.”

“Let me announce here that the World Food Programme is committed to spending $2.5 billion to fight hunger in Nigeria in the next five years,” the WFP boss said.

In her remarks, Dr. Edu commended the WFP Country Director for the visit and the kind comments about her.

The Minister informed Stevesson that there are over 133 million people in Nigeria affected by multidimensional poverty, stressing that WFP’s intervention of $2.5 billion for five years “will go a long way to address some of the biggest challenges the country is facing, which is hunger.”

According to the Minister, “Zero Hunger” is one of the projects her Ministry has initiated as part of poverty and humanitarian response efforts, and she appealed to the WFP to key into it by working with the Ministry to achieve results.

Dr Edu explained that Homegrown School Feeding is one aspect of the Zero Hunger Project, as the Ministry will be working on different nutritional programmes that will target both pregnant women, children under five, school feeding, feeding of persons who are affected by humanitarian crises, the elderly, and persons of concern, “including refugees that have found themselves within our space.”

“We have over 80,000 people as refugees presently in Nigeria. In the state I come from alone, there are over 40,000 refugees, and these are just those who are registered.

“Part of the innovation that we are bringing on board is what we call humanitarian hubs because we want to create 774 of these humanitarian hubs in each Local Government across Nigeria,” she added.

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