COVID-19: ECOWAS donates 4,000 tonnes of grains to Nigeria

The ECOWAS Commission on Saturday donated about 4,000 tonnes of food items to the Nigerian government for distribution to vulnerable households, to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ECOWAS Commissioner of Agriculture, Water Resources and Environment, Sangare Sekou, disclosed this at the presentation of the items to the federal government in Kano.

Sekou said the gesture was to demonstrate the region’s solidarity with the Government and People of Nigeria.

He said: “This regional solidarity will be demonstrated through food donations of a total quantity of 3,999 tonnes of cereals comprising of millet and sorghum.

“The first donation consists of 1,196 tonnes of cereals financed by the ECOWAS Commission’s Humanitarian Emergency Fund for Disaster and Emergency Relief to Member States affected by a humanitarian crisis.

“While the second donation of 2,803 tonnes is funded by the resources of the Regional Food Security Storage Support Project, which the European Union is financing with a total amount of €56 million.

“The grains will be taken from the stocks in the ECOWAS Regional Food Security Reserve, partly warehoused with the Federal Strategic Reserve Department (FSRD) and distributed free of charge to the households mostly affected by the humanitarian situation in the country.”

The commissioner said the donations would complement the multi-dimensional support ECOWAS was providing to Nigeria since the advent of COVID -19 in the country on February 27.

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Sekou noted that the COVID -19 pandemic disrupted production, warehousing, marketing, processing, and distribution systems of agriculture and food productions, especially in the North East part of the country.

The ECOWAS official added: “The Harmonised Framework for Identifying Risk Areas and Vulnerability estimates that over 7,087,102 people are currently in difficult food situations in the country, including Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and children affected by malnutrition.

“The ECOWAS Commission has, therefore, decided to provide the support of the region through its Humanitarian Emergency Fund and the financial support of the European Union within the framework of the Regional Food Security Storage Support Project.”

He added that food donations would assist vulnerable households to cope with the multiple crises while safeguarding their livelihoods.

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