The World Bank has allocated $800 million to support rebuilding of infrastructure destroyed in the North East by the Boko Haram insurgency, The Nation reports.
UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Ms Fatma Samoura, made the disclosure on Thursday in Maiduguri during a courtesy visit to Gov Kashim Shettima.
Samoura, who is also a UN Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative, said the UN was scaling up its presence in Borno and other North Eastern states ravaged by the insurgency.
“Yesterday, we had a long discussion with the World Bank team that came from Washington to attend the workshop.
“The workshop is for validating the year findings of the recovery and peace-building assessment.
“They have promised to leverage 800 million dollars for the North East to response to recovery, rehabilitation, de-mining, waste management and debris processing for the North East of Nigeria,’’ she said.
The UN representative regretted that the UN was having challenges in mobilising resources for Nigeria in view of the humanitarian crises in other parts of the world.
“As we all know, the Syrian crisis that is affecting Europe is also taking a heavy toll in terms of funding from our traditional donors.
“We are trying our best to ensure that our advocacy and our communication strategy are up to the level where we will be receiving more attention from the donor community.
“The humanitarian response plan, as we speak, is just 10 per cent funded, meaning we have only received 24 million dollars.
“This is out of 248 million dollars budgeted for the North East of Nigeria for 2016,” she said.
Samoura, however, pledged that the UN would continue to complement the World Bank and the EU supports to address the root causes of poverty and exclusion in the North East.
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