The National Economic Council (NEC) has approved the release of over ₦83 billion from the Anticipatory Action Trust Fund (AATF) to tackle the recurring challenge of flooding across Nigeria.
The approval was granted during the NEC meeting chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima at the Council Chamber of the State House, Abuja, on Thursday.
Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting, the Governor of Cross River State, Bassey Otu, disclosed that an initial proposal of over ₦166 billion had been presented for the Trust Fund before the final approval was made.
However, he disclosed that NEC approved the sum of ₦83.2 billion.
The fund is expected to support proactive measures, including early warning systems, emergency preparedness, and other flood mitigation initiatives designed to reduce the devastating effects of seasonal flooding.
In addition, the Council noted the importance of the AATF in addressing disasters and emergencies across the country, underscoring the fact that NEC cannot continue to be seen as always taking reactionary measures with regard to emergency and disaster management.
Speaking at the meeting, Shettima said the President Bola Tinubu administration’s reform agenda must now produce visible results across the federation.
Shettima noted that the Council’s work must be judged by what changes in the lives of ordinary Nigerians, especially farmers, manufacturers, vulnerable citizens, unemployed young people and children who will inherit the country.
He stated, “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.
“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, Stanley Nkwocha, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Communications, quoted Shettima as saying that Nigeria remains a federation moving from stabilisation to production, from aspiration to implementation, and from isolated interventions to coordinated national growth.
According to him, the agenda before the Council was not a new conversation, but a continuation of the national assignment with greater pressure for action and results.
“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,” the vice president said.
“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.”
Shettima pointed out that the social protection agenda before the Council was an opportunity to convert national conscience into a durable system that protects citizens and strengthens human capital.
On exports and production, he said Nigeria must stop relying on the export of raw materials while importing finished products from other countries.
He maintained that the country’s economic transformation depends on a complete value chain linking farms to factories, factories to standards, standards to ports, and ports to markets.
“We cannot continue to export raw materials and import finished products,” he said.
He assured that the Council would confront bottlenecks that weaken Nigeria’s agricultural exports, especially the challenges affecting the movement of goods through the ports and the standards required by international markets.
The vice president averred that improving port processes and meeting export compliance requirements are central to rewarding farmers, strengthening manufacturers and expanding 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,” Shettima added.
