Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno state has reminded the European Union (EU) and implementation partners to complete their “agreed project activities” due to insecurity, COVID-19 and other challenges in the Northeast. Zulum raised the alarm at the weekend during an EU steering committee meeting held in Abuja. He urged the EU and implementation partners to ensure that all resources earmarked for the Borno package are spent in the state. “I’m appealing to the EU to grant us extensions for the implementation partners to enable them complete their projects sited across the state,” he said.
The Commissioner for the Ministry of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (MRRR), Mustapha Gubio reiterated EU’s need to support ‘knowledge manage’ of the package through the Ministry’s website and data centre. In her response, the EU Head of Cooperation in Nigeria, Mrs. Cecile Tassin-Pelzer acknowledged the coordination efforts of the state government through its ministry on the Borno package. “We’re committed to supporting Nigeria to address her challenges,” she said, adding that the EU will look at no-cost-extension requests to approve or justify the need for extension. Kabiru Abass, the team leader of the Support to Coordination of EU (SCEU) intervention in the state (SCEUBS) presented the overall progress, beneficiaries reached, outstanding activities and way forward to complete the implementation of the package.
The implementation partners; however called for the improvements in security and access to project sites and extension to complete their activities in the state. According to an EU partner, the duration of the extension period will be worked out at a later date. The package has supported more than a million beneficiaries in early recovery and peace building activities in 22 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state. Government is also committed to addressing insecurity and challenges of access to implement all the EU support,
