The North East Development Commission (NEDC) has donated the sum of N3 billion to the Borno State Government for distribution to small business owners in Maiduguri who were mostly affected by the flood disaster that ravaged Maiduguri, the state’s capital last Tuesday.
The Commission also donated the sum of N50 million 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 was announced on Tuesday when the chairman of board of NEDC , Maj Gen. Paul Tarfa ( rtd ) led members of the board and the management team to pay sympathy visit to the Governor Babagana Zulum over the flood incident.
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 due to the incident.
According to him, he said they to dwelt on how small businesses that were mostly affected can be assisted, adding that a look on Borno State showed that most of the people affected are small businesses or people that depend on stipends.
“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 infrastructures, 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,” Tarfa said.
Speaking on the plights of the victims, he added, “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. So we are very sorry Your Excellency and pray that God will give you the wisdom and strength to face the situation.”
In his remarks, Governor Zulum thanked the Commission for coming to sympathise with him.
He urged NEDC to be more visible in discharging its responsibility to the people of Borno, especially the victims of the flood.