The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, has said that the federal government will create a trust fund for humanitarian and emergency response across Nigeria.
Edu who was on Monday sworn in by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said this during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Wednesday disclosed that there will be partnerships with the private sector for poverty alleviation.
According to her, the government will not be the sole driver, hence President Tinubu will be using funds saved from the removal of payment on fuel subsidy.
The minister also revealed that the FG will deploy the same strategy as the private sector-driven Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) during the Covid pandemic in involving the private sector fully into the humanitarian and poverty alleviation space.
“We are going to create a trust fund for emergency response and humanitarian response in the country and create protocols for this response to know what to do when to do it and how to do it and who are the people who should be beneficiaries from it,” Edu said.
“No, we are not going to be dependent on only the government to be able to carry out poverty alleviation, humanitarian crisis response, and the rest of it.
“We know that the government has their part to play and we are very, very confident that the President is committed to this especially with funds that have been saved from the fuel subsidy removal.”
She further stated that the private sector will play a significant role in reducing the high rate of poverty in Nigeria.
“Now beyond this, we are bringing the private sector fully into the humanitarian and poverty alleviation space, we are bringing the private sector fully into it,” she said.
Edu also spoke of her meeting with the head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and mentioned the agency’s promise to come into the humanitarian and poverty alleviation space with over 270 million dollars.
“We are working with partners. UNICEF will be working with us to set up a humanitarian situation room to monitor, prevent, mitigate and reintegrate people, when they have a humanitarian crisis, back into society,” she said.
The former Commissioner for Health in Cross River State also revealed that several other partners are willing to come in to support them just like UNICEF.
She added that her ministry is setting up a situation room with UNICEF which will be working with them to set up a humanitarian situation so that they can monitor, prevent, mitigate and re-integrate people when they have humanitarian crisis back into the society after handling them appropriately.
“So these are things we want to be monitoring as they go. We can try to avoid them and prevent them and where it’s impossible to do so,” Etu said.
“We can see how we immediately respond to it using a country specific contexts with the protocol. And then of course, at the end of the day, we integrate them back into the society.
“So we’re already working with partners, several partners are engaging with us. We are going to expand on all of that. Beyond this, we are going to be engaging with other countries or the individuals who are wondering.
“Of course, we know about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and several other foundations, even in the north, in the east that are fully involved in this humanitarian response, who will bring all of them to the table and will be donating into a central account which is going to be the trust fund.”
Etu said that on this, Nigerians can hold them accountable, to respond, to hear them out on any issues that may arise and equally respond to poverty alleviation issues in the country.
She added that the logistics concerning the fuel subsidy palliatives need to be reworked and that having a meeting point to collect the palliatives is not too ideal.
“For us, we would think that it will be better off to deliver this, improve on the logistics and deliver it to their doorstep where they live,” she said, stating that GPS will be employed to aid logistics and accountability.
