World Food Program spends US$126m in Northern Nigeria

Ms. Ingermarie Vennize, WFP’s Head of Communication in Nigeria

The World Food Programme (WFP) has spent $126 million to provide food aid in various forms to 1.2 million people in 16 Northern Nigerian states since 2017.

Ms. Ingermarie Vennize, the World Food Programme’s Head of Communication in Nigeria, identified the sates as Katsina, Kaduna,Taraba, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kano, Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Gombe, Jigawa, Kebbi, Plateau and Niger.

She added that the programme planned to meet its target of providing food assistance to 1.5 million of the most food insecure and vulnerable people in Northeast Nigeria.

“As at this moment, WFP is providing food and cash assistance to more than 1.2 million,’’ she said.

According to Vennize, the number of people affected by insurgency has increased as more than 20,000 have returned to the area from neighbouring countries.

She said that the programme’s activities in the affected states had increased, especially from June to September, when stored food would have dwindled.

She said that owing to the development, WFP required 49 million dollars to sustain its life-saving support until the end of 2018.

“WFP is able to carry out the exercise by mopping up assistance from the government of countries that are friendly to Nigeria.

“We also provide nutritional support to pregnant women to prevent unnecessary mother and child death,’’ she added.

The official said further that WFP also provided support to mostly the vulnerable in the society and in the areas ravaged by the Boko Haram insurgency for the people to engage in agricultural activities wherever they could, or engage in income-generating activities wherever possible.

The head of communication further said that the programme was providing preventative nutrition assistance to children of six to 23 months old, and to children with moderate or acute malnutrition that were of between 24 and 59 months old.

(NAN)