Nigeria: UNDP, EU Launch $2.3 Million Project

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the European Union (EU) during the week launched an unconditional cash transfer project targeting the poor and vulnerable in Lagos State, southwest Nigeria.

The organisations launched the project in partnership with the Lagos government and the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

Development Diaries understands that the project, aimed at assisting citizens adversely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, costs $2.3 million.

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouk, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the senior special assistant to the president on Sustainable Development Goals, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, the EU Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ketil Karlsen, and the UNDP Resident Representative, Mohamad Yahya, witnessed the unveiling of the project in Lagos.

‘The project implemented under the Nigeria One UN Covid-19 Response seeks to alleviate the socio-economic impact of the pandemic on the beneficiaries and strengthen resilience of communities in selected local government areas (LGAs) across the state, deeply impacted by the Covid-19 crisis’, a statement released by EU read.

‘Lagos State not only has the largest number of recorded cases of Covid-19 in the country…but also has the highest number of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) nationwide at over three million micro-enterprises and more than 8,000 SMEs which have been adversely affected by the pandemic.

‘In key areas such as Victoria Island, Ikorodu, Ifako-Ijaye, Alimosho, Apapa and Lagos Mainland, 22,600 families will benefit from cash transfers, while over 5,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups will receive funding for business continuity or innovative startups that will benefit their communities’.

Governor Sanwo-Olu said that the pandemic was a learning point for impactful, far-sighted policies and a catalyst for sustainable development.

‘As a responsible and responsive government we are constantly implementing initiatives that ameliorate the plights of our citizens, businesses and constituencies’, the governor said.

‘Despite budget cuts and resource conservation, we have increased capital expenditure in health, education, and economics sectors.

I am excited at the opportunity this partnership presents in impacting the lives of our people’.

Head of the EU delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Karlsen, said that the Covid-19 pandemic was a health, humanitarian and socio-economic crisis.

‘We are at the tipping point that requires cohesive, collective and immediate action, including harnessing social safety nets for the most vulnerable people, such as cash transfers and temporary basic income, particularly for women who are falling faster into poverty than men’, he said.

On his part, UNDP’s Yahya said, ‘The pandemic has made our pledge to leave no one behind and to reach those furthest behind first much more difficult to achieve.

‘Together, we, nonetheless, have a chance to turn one of the greatest reversals of human development in our lifetimes into a historic leap forward to a sustainable, inclusive, peaceful, and resilient future, with the sustainable development goals as our compass’.

Source: Premium Times

Photo source: Lagos State Government

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