Reps probe govt agency for using N81bn to plant 21m trees in 11 states

The Ad-Hoc Committee in the House of Representatives investigating the Utilization of Ecological Funds and other Intervention Funds has raised concerns that an agency of the Ministry of Environment, National Agency for Great Green Wall (NAGGW), spent N81 billion to plant 21 million trees in 11 states in Northern Nigeria.

The states, according to the committee’s findings, are Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Yobe and Borno States.

The Director-General of the NAGWW, Yusuf Maina Bukar, who appeared before the Committee on Wednesday, explained that the agency also spent N697.71m on renovation of office accommodation and N11.28bn on capital projects.

Bukar added that the main funding of the agency was from 15 per cent of the Ecological Funds, federal allocation as well as other sources for its operations.

Chairman of the committee, Isma’ila Haruna Dabo and the members who expressed their surprise at the expenditure of the agency, said the NAGGW “spent monies without commensurate results” as well as deviating from its core mandate.

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“In recent years, we have witnessed a significant upsurge in natural environmental challenges such as land degradation, deforestation, desertification and drought, which most times are explained away with the context of climate change,” Dabo said.

“Projects such as the Great Green Wall under investigation here were designed primarily to address some of these issues.

“The persistence of these challenges despite funds put into the programme from both the federal government and international partners has necessitated this investigation,” he added.

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