Tinubu, others visit Nigeria refugees
Tinubu |
Some of Nigeria’s most
influential and powerful business leaders travelled to Maiduguri recently in a
first-ever collective visit to camps for internally displaced people where aid
agencies have been responding to the most urgent needs of women, men and
children freshly displaced by the ongoing conflict.
Adewale Tinubu, Group CEO, Oando
Plc, one of Nigeria’s largest indigenous energy companies, led a delegation
that included Access Bank’s Group Managing Director, Herbert Wigwe, and former
chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Kyari Bukar, among other
private sector leaders.
They joined the UN Humanitarian
Coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, and other UN representatives on a visit
to two IDP camps in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, where they met people
whose lives have been uprooted by the ongoing crisis.
“The humanitarian community has
been working tirelessly to provide shelter, food, health care and other basic
needs to families who have been left with little or nothing. To see CEOs of
banks and energy companies show compassion for the mothers and fathers,
daughters and sons affected by this crisis brings a new beacon of hope for
people who have endured too much. Together with the leading business minds in
Nigeria, there is so much more we can do for Nigeria’s most vulnerable people,”
Kallon said.
The visit was part of the Nigeria
Humanitarian Fund-Private Sector Initiative (NHF-PSI), a groundbreaking global
initiative created in Nigeria that will see companies join donor countries in
pooling donations and resources together.
The platform aims to create a
more collaborative and effective response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis
that has affected over 7 million people in Nigeria’s north-east, 80 percent of
whom are women and children.
“This initiative is about
Nigerians helping Nigerians. Today I have witnessed some of the most vulnerable
people, women and children in the most dire circumstances. Having seen the
magnitude of their humanitarian needs, it’s obvious it’s not a task the government
or any one agency can take on alone. The onus is on us to use our position to
repair, nurture, build and sustain our society and pave a path for a truly
inclusive economy,” Tinubu said.
The delegation also met with the
Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, who welcomed this unique partnership.
“I’m very glad that the Nigerian
private sector, a very vibrant sector, is at the vanguard of driving this
program. In the UN, Nigeria’s private sector has found a partner that has the
integrity to truly make things work,” Shettima said.
Fourteen of the biggest companies
in Nigeria signed up to the initiative, launched in Lagos in November 2018,
which will harness their financial resources, innovative capacity and entrepreneurial
drive in support of the humanitarian response in the affected states of Borno,
Adamawa and Yobe.
To date, the Nigeria Humanitarian
Fund has raised $83m in contributions and pledges, thanks to the generous
support of seventeen donor countries.
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