States back ₦83.2bn anticipatory flood action fund
The National Economic Council (NEC) has approved the release of ₦83.2 billion under the Anticipatory Action Trust Fund (AATF) to strengthen Nigeria’s preparedness against recurring floods and other disasters.
The approval was granted on Thursday during the NEC meeting chaired by Vice-President Kashim Shettima at the Council Chamber of the State House in Abuja.
Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting, the Governor of Cross River State, Bassey Otu, said the council had considered an initial proposal of more than ₦166 billion for the fund but approved ₦83.2 billion.
According to Otu, the intervention will finance proactive measures including early warning systems, emergency preparedness and other flood mitigation initiatives aimed at reducing the impact of seasonal flooding across the country.
He added that the council agreed Nigeria must move away from its traditional reactive approach to disaster management by investing more in prevention and preparedness.
Addressing the meeting, Vice-President Shettima said the administration of President Bola Tinubu had reached a stage where its economic reforms must translate into tangible improvements in the lives of Nigerians.
He said the success of government policies should be measured by their impact on farmers, manufacturers, vulnerable citizens, unemployed young people and future generations.
“When this Council last met, I called our economy a workshop. A place of measurement and correction. A place where plans are turned into systems, and systems into institutions, before any of it becomes prosperity,” Shettima said.
“A workshop is judged by one thing. Not by the plans pinned to its walls, but by what comes off the bench. We return to that bench today. Not to admire the image, but to ask the question that honours it. Is the work taking shape?”
In a statement issued after the meeting by Stanley Nkwocha, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications, the vice-president said Nigeria was moving from economic stabilisation to production, from aspiration to implementation and from isolated interventions to coordinated national growth.
He stressed that the agenda before the council remained focused on delivering measurable outcomes.
“The assignment has not changed. We remain a federation moving from stabilisation to production, from aspiration to implementation, from isolated interventions to coordinated national growth. What has changed, I hope, is our proximity to delivery,” he said.
Shettima also emphasised the importance of strengthening the country’s social protection programmes, saying government had a responsibility to ensure vulnerable Nigerians were not left behind.
“A federation does not earn its prosperity by leaving its most vulnerable behind and hoping they catch up. The dignity of the citizen with the least is the floor beneath which we have resolved that no Nigerian shall fall,” he said.
On economic diversification, the vice-president urged Nigeria to end its dependence on exporting raw materials while importing finished products, arguing that sustainable growth required a complete value chain linking agriculture, manufacturing and export markets.
“We cannot continue to export raw materials and import finished products,” he said.
Shettima said the government would address bottlenecks affecting agricultural exports, particularly challenges relating to port operations and compliance with international standards.
He maintained that improving export processes would enhance farmers’ incomes, strengthen manufacturers and expand Nigeria’s participation in global trade.
“A nation that cannot move its goods has imprisoned its own farmers. Meeting international standards is not submission to foreign demand. It is the price of the markets that will reward our labour,” he said.