AfDB, WFP distribute $1m food items to Borno households
By Tada Juthan, Maiduguri
The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have distributed $1 million (N1.5 billion) worth of food items to 17,236 households in Borno State.
The households comprising 88,180 individuals were affected in the last September floods that devastated the Maiduguri metropolis.
According to the bank, the $1 million contribution is from its Special Fund to support emergency food response for flood-affected communities in the Northeast.
Distributing the flood-relief materials on Thursday in Maiduguri, the WFP Country Director in Nigeria, David Stevenson, stated, “Our support comes at a critical time, when humanitarian funding is in short supply and the country faces alarmingly high rates of food insecurity,” attributing it to the fuelling of conflict, floods, and poverty in the region.
He lamented that communities that started rebuilding their lives were, however, struck by floods again, displacing about 1.5 million residents of Maiduguri.
He noted that the recent floods had compounded years of prior displacements, food insecurity, and hardship, with disastrous consequences by pushing hunger levels much higher.
Stevenson continued, “The Cade Harmonise analysis, conducted twice a year in 26 states and the federal capital, Abuja, projects that 33 million people would be food insecure in August 2025.
The AfDB Director General in Nigeria, Abdul Kamara also said: “This additional funding will mitigate the suffering of vulnerable people on the brink of acute hunger,” stating that this is at a time when more people are in need of humanitarian assistance. “I commend the federal government and WFP’s humanitarian food systems solution in Borno State.
He said that each of the affected households collected a customised ATM card valued at N101,000.
Besides the disbursed stipends, he said that the new contribution complements the bank’s ongoing effort to restructure activities of the program for Integrated Agricultural Development Adaptation (IADA) to climate change and basic service delivery and livelihood empowerment in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states.
Meanwhile, WFP and other development partners also deliver food and specialised nutrition assistance to 1 million people each month.
