We’re Committed To Rebuilding Infrastructure In BOKO Haram-affected States Of Adamawa, Borno, Yobe – UNDP

The Resident Representative in Nigeria of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Mr Mohammed Yahya has said that the programme is committed to the rebuilding of the three most-affected Boko Haram (BH) States of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.

Yahya, who stated this during a courtesy visit to the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning in Abuja, Mr. Clem Agba, said there is a stabilisation facility to take care of the affected states in the areas of infrastructure development including roads, houses, clinics and police stations, among others.

He announced that the UNDP has already mobilized $64 million for the region in a period of 18 months with 50 percent coming to Nigeria, adding that the Stabilisation facility is a by-product of the Regional Stabilisation Strategy adopted last year with approval for Nigeria as the largest contributor.

He further said; “We were able to launch it in Berlin where your predecessor, former Minister of State, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, represented Nigeria and committed that Nigeria would support the implementation of the facility in the country.”

He said the effort through the stabilisation facility was to convince the community that governments at the federal and state levels were very much interested in ensuring their development and moving them from the concept of crisis to getting the entire region back on its footing.

“So, we hope to show our commitment to Nigeria and see how Nigeria herself is able to contribute to the budget of the programme,” Yahya stated.

Responding, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mr Clem Ikanade Agba, commended the UNDP’s commitment in the rebuilding of states ravaged by Boko Haram and expressed expressed appreciation to the UNDP on the stabilisation facility.

Agba stressed the need to bring back the broken down infrastructure in the three states, saying that it will bring a lot of succor to our people; give them meaning to life and a new hope. 

According to him; “We will work with you to ensure that those projects come in very quickly. The Ministry would be interested in how the UNDP could deploy technology and capacity building in assisting it to develop the new national development plan that would succeed the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) in 2021. The ERGP will come to an end in December 2020.”