Nigeria Missed Out From U.S.’ $91 Million COVID-19 Response Fund To Africa
Nigeria has been left out of the $91 million COVID-19 response fund for African countries, despite the fact that the country continues to struggle with poverty and insecurity.
While announcing the Western country’s intervention fund to Africa, Jeremy Konyndyk, the executive director of the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) COVID-19 task force, did not list Nigeria among the beneficiaries of the $91 million relief fund in a statement made available to Peoples Gazette on Friday.
The rescue fund, according to Mr Konyndyk, was handed to countries across Africa to meet severe humanitarian needs created by the deadly COVID-19 outbreak.
He went on to say that the $91 million will help people across Africa with food, health care, water, and psychosocial support.
“Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) COVID-19 Task Force Executive Director Jeremy Konyndyk announced more than $91 million to provide urgently needed food assistance, health care, water, and psychosocial support for people across Africa, in order to address urgent humanitarian needs caused by the devastating COVID-19 pandemic,” statement by USAID read.
Burkina Faso, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mozambique are among the countries that will benefit from the US COVID-19 relief fund. Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Zimbabwe are among the others.
Nigeria lost $40.6 billion in 2020 due to insecurity, according to Peoples Gazette, as mysterious shooters, killer herders, bandits, Boko Haram, and ISWAP terrorists conspired to wreak unprecedented carnage on Africa’s most populous nation last year.
According to the World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update, seven million Nigerians will be poor by 2020.
According to a statement on the World Bank’s website on Tuesday, over seven million Nigerians have fallen below the poverty line as a result of rising inflation in the country in 2020.
