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.
