Nigeria gets $4.5m Japanese grants for disaster management

Federal Government yesterday, received a grant of $4.5 million from Japan for provision of Japanese disaster reduction equipment.

The agreement was consummated yesterday, at the agreement signing ceremony for the grant between Federal Government and a team of Japanese delegation in Abuja.

Under the programme, Japan is supporting Nigeria’s efforts to equip NEMA and other emergency operation centres with disaster reduction related products of japan enterprises, while NEMA will be the implementation partner.

Recall that in the 3rd UN World conference on disaster risk reduction, with about 187 member states present in Sendai City of Miyagi Prefecture in Japan from 14 to 18 march, 2015, the Sendai Declaration and the Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction 2015-2030 were adopted by consensus.

At the Sendai declaration, the international community’s determination to enhance its efforts to strengthen disaster risk reduction to reduce disaster losses pf lives and assets was declared.

Consequently, it was at this conference that the prime Minister of Japan, Abe announced the $4.5 million contribution plan of Japan to Nigeria.

The package includes: $4 million of financial cooperation and training of 40,000 government officials and leaders in four years from 2015 to 2018.

According to the Japanese delegation, the non-project grant aid constitutes a step to steadily fulfil the commitments of Japan in Nigeria.

According to them, the project is intended to support developing countries by promoting its economic and social developing through providing foreign currency for import of goods such as industrial machinery necessary to promote economic and social development efforts by the developing countries.

In his remarks, the Minister of National Planning Commission, Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman, said the purpose of the grant is to support social and economic development goals of Nigeria by improving resilience to disaster.

He highlighted the major areas of Japan’s had assisted Nigeria as: health, water supply, sanitation, primary secondary education and rural and agricultural development as well as electricity.

For him, the project is a landmark in the history of bilateral economic cooperation between Nigeria and Japan.
The Minister pointed out that the relevance of disaster reduction efforts in the current Nigerian situation cannot be overemphasized, given the prevailing challenges occasioned by the Arab Spring that manifested in the form of terrorism, and climate change.

He posited that Nigeria had made some proactive efforts to prevent occurrence of disaster instead of reactionary measures to natural disaster despite all the challenges it faced since the 2012 flood devastation.

He however, expressed confidence that the Japanese grant would go a long way in complementing the efforts f the Nigerian government in disaster management and promised that the fund would be put into maximum use.

On his part, the head of Japanese delegation, Mr. Masaya Otsuka, said the grant would be used for procurement of disaster reduction equipment of high quality made by Japanese enterprises for NEMA to use them make Nigeria more resilient country in the field of disaster reduction.

While commending Nigerians for the just concluded general election, Otsuka said the government of japan would spare no effort in providing assistance to Nigeria that shares fundamental values including democracy.
He revealed that second international discussions to formulate a new set of world development goals to succeed the MDGs are underway.

Culled from Vanguard