Nigeria, Switzerland to support vulnerable people through the WFP

Ene Okwanihe, Abuja

The World Food Programme in collaboration with the Nigerian government and the Swiss government has provided support in the form of cash and food items for vulnerable Nigerians and small businesses affected by COVID-19 in the country.

With the emergence of the COVID-19 in the world, many vulnerable people’s source of livelihood was brought to a halt as countries around the world and the African continental announced lockdown to prevent further spread of the Pandemic.

Most countries have opened up for business after the worse phase of the pandemic but nothing is the same for  small businesses and vulnerable people in the society as they struggle to recover from the damages caused by the effects of the Pandemic on their businesses and source of livelihood, be it farming or trading.

Different organisations rose up to the challenges of supporting these vulnerable people and businesses in Africa and the world.

In Nigeria, cash and food items were distributed in a distribution exercise led by the World Food Programme to residents of Karon Majiji a suburb in the Nigerian Federal Capital city, Abuja.

The World Food Programme Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Paul Howe said the WFP is injecting the total some of two million dollars into the local economies of the three hotspots of Kano, Abuja and Lagos in Nigeria.

He said the Government of Switzerland supporting with part of the funding while the Nigerian Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development is providing 2,000 metric tons of food from the Federal Government of Nigeria through the National Strategic Grains Reserve to tackle the rising food insecurity in the country.

Dr. Howe said it’s the first time WFP is expanding into urban centres in Nigeria to serve people and families affected by hunger and severe food insecurity caused by COVID-19.

“WFP has been in Nigeria for four years but we’ve worked in the North east of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe state but because of COVID-19 and we saw the impact on people in the urban areas, they don’t have their livelihood the way they use, the economy is not quite as strong as it was so they also are hungry and so we are reaching people in Kano, Abuja and Lagos with this particular programme”

The country representative noted that the programme is a one-off two months distribution exercise to meet the need of people and also target the right people who actually need the support.

The Programme Director, World Food Programme, Barbara Clemence who expressed satisfaction with the mode of distribution said the door to door distribution is the best way to reach the indigents in the community.

She added that the monies were being distributed to the people using the United Bank for Africa (UBA).

On his part the Chief of Garki, His Royal Highness, Alhaji Usman Nga-Kupi appreciated the WFP’s support to his people as the support will go a long way in impacting the lives of his people.

“It will impact positively in the lives of my people, one it would help in the area of feeding their families, two it would improve their economic status because they would trade with the money and whatever they get as interest they can sustain themselves and their families”

Two aged women, Hadiza Bako and Aisha Adamu were part of the beneficiaries, speaking in Hausa Language, they both thanked the World Food Programme for remembering them and hoped to use the support to impact their communities.