On his part, the Director-General, NEMA, Mr Mustapha Ahmed, said that the commencement of the distribution of the support items to beneficiaries of SNELEI, was a promise kept by the Federal Government.

The NEMA boss, represented by Mrs Ngozi Ben-Okeke, State Supervisor, SNELEI, said that the Federal Government approved the intervention specifically for people affected by 2022 flood disasters and for those classified as most vulnerable persons across the country.

According to Ahmed, immediately after the devastating impact of the 2022 flood, damage and loss assessment were conducted and relief items approved by the Federal Government were delivered  across the states to complement initial intervention by the state governments.

He noted that Federal Government approved this second phase of Special Intervention based on joint assessment conducted by NEMA and State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMAs) to support those impacted by the flood to quickly return to normalcy.

He said that beneficiaries of the scheme were dully verified by NEMA in collaboration with SEMA’s staff, state agricultural development projects and other stakeholders.

He advised beneficiaries to effectively utilise the items to drive and sustain their socio-economic resilience.

 “A total of 660,884 households verified and targeted to benefit from this special intervention across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The NEMA boss thanked Mr President and the state governments for their supports towards  the implementation of the intervention to support flood victims and the most vulnerable in the states.

In his opening remarks, Director, SEMA, Mr Gabriel Oviemeso, lauded NEMA for the intervention while noting that 19 local government areas out of 25 was greatly impacted by the 2022 flood.

Some of the beneficiaries thanked the Federal Government, NEMA, SEMA and the state government for supporting them with relief materials while pledging to effectively utilise the items to improve their economic wellbeing.

Some of the beneficiaries including Mrs Peace Boniface, Mrs Ogechi Eze,  Ijeoma Ezenyili and Mr Darlington Dege, said that the materials would support them, particularly at this period of economic crunch in the country.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the items distributed were categorise as: Agricultural inputs- Maize rice, and groundnut seeds, herbicides, pesticides, liquid fertilisers, knapscak sprayers 16L, Water Pump 3HP and Growth enhancers.

Others are livelihood equipment – Sewing machines , grinding machines ; and  Food Items – Rice(25kg), Beans(10kg), Sorghum(10kg), vegetable oil (2kg), salt(1kg), tomato paste  sachets and seasoning.

Also distributed were non-Food-Items  such as mosquito nets, blankets, nylon mats, plastic buckets, foam mattress, sets of cooking pots, toilets soaps, detergents and cooking  stoves.(NAN) (www.nannews.ng).

Edited by Benson Iziama/Isaac Aregbesola

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