Canada pledges $18m for poverty, humanitarian response in Nigeria

The Canadian Government will support humanitarian and poverty alleviation in Nigeria with 18 million dollars.

The Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Jamie Christoff, made this known when he visited the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu in her office in Abuja.

Christoff said Canada has already committed to spend a total of $152 m to support various programmes in Nigeria. According to him, part of the money is the $18 million earmarked for Humanitarian response.

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”The main portion of the funds will be spent in programmes focusing on the vulnerable women and young girls across the country.

The Canadian envoy lauded the establishment of the Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Trust Fund.

“I am here with my team to register our support to the mandate of the President in his efforts to alleviate poverty and reduce humanitarian crises in Nigeria through your ministry” he said.

In her response, Edu, commended the Canadian high commissioner for the time to visit her as well as supporting the ministry’s efforts in humanitarian response.

Edu expressed delight that the Canadian government has confidence in President Bola Tinubu Administration to drive Nigeria’s poverty alleviation and humanitarian response.

She assured the ambassador of the federal government’s desire to deepens mutual working relationship with the Canadian government.

According to her, the Tinubu Administration is determined to tackle Nigeria’s multi-dimensional poverty and humanitarian crises in line with the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs).

She assured the Canadian Envoy that the Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Trust Fund will be used to address humanitarian emergencies.

She said, there will be transparency in the application of the fund.

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Edu therefore urged all stakeholders to re-evaluate their contributions to Nigeria and work towards providing durable solutions to ‘our country’ need.

She advocated for a change in approach of partners to enable the people who need help the most truly get it with less duplication and wastage.