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Flooding: Request N100bn Loan, Reps Tell Buhari
In a bid to tackle the effect of flooding in the country, the House of Representatives on Monday tasked President Muhammadu Buhari to make a request of N100 billion.
Henry Nwawuba (Imo-PDP) and Isiaka Ibrahim (Ogun-APC) moved the motion of urgent public importance during plenary session.
The legislators urged the president to propose a supplementary budget of N100 billion, while they also mandated the House Committee on Appropriations to include N200 billion in the 2023 budget.
To also mitigate the effect of flooding, the reps directed the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to release N5 billion for ecological funds.
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Nwawuba also argued that there is a possible strike of food insecurity if government fails to take proactive action by careful intervention.
He stated that the flooding has affected prices of certain agricultural products. He warned that certain industries may be affected.
“In 2012, 32 out of 36 states were affected by flooding, with 363 people killed, over 2.1 Million people displaced, about N7 million people affected and a total loss estimate of N2.6 trillion recorded.
“In 2022, 33 out of 36 states and the FCT are affected, that is 92% of the entire country, over 600 people killed. Over 1.4 million people displaced and over 2.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance with over 60% of this number being children,” he said.
The motion was adopted by the lawmakers.