Some of Nigeria’s corporate giants visited insurgency-ravaged Maiduguri, Borno State, the heart of the North-east geo-political zone, Tuesday, accompanied by the country’s UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Edward Kallon, and other representatives.
They were in two IDP camps as part of a first-ever collective visit to internally displaced people, as part of the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund-Private Sector Initiative (NHF-PSI), a groundbreaking global initiative created in Nigeria that will enable companies to join donor countries in pooling donations and resources together.
The platform aims to create a more collaborative and effective response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis that has affected over seven million people in Nigeria’s north-east, 80 percent of whom are women and children.
Adewale Tinubu, Group CEO of Oando Plc, led the delegation that included Access Bank’s Group Managing Director, Herbert Wigwe, and former chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Kyari Bukar, among other private sector leaders.
According to Kallon, “the humanitarian community has been working tirelessly to provide shelter, food, health care and other basic needs to families who have been left with little or nothing.
“To see CEOs of banks and energy companies show compassion for the mothers and fathers, daughters and sons affected by this crisis brings a new beacon of hope for people who have endured too much. Together with the leading business minds in Nigeria, there is so much more we can do for Nigeria’s most vulnerable people,” he said.
For Tinubu, the “initiative is about Nigerians helping Nigerians. Today I have witnessed some of the most vulnerable people; women and children in the most dire circumstances. Having seen the magnitude of their humanitarian needs, it is obvious that it is not a task that the Government or any one agency can take on alone.
“The onus is on us to use our position to repair, nurture, build and sustain our society and pave a path for a truly inclusive economy,” he added.
The delegation also met with Governor Kashim Shettima, who welcomed the unique partnership from the Nigerian private sector, expressing confidence that “in the UN, Nigeria’s private sector has found a partner that has the integrity to truly make things work”, Governor Shettima stated.
Fourteen of the biggest companies in Nigeria signed up to the initiative launched in Lagos in November 2018, which will harness their financial resources, innovative capacity and entrepreneurial drive in support of the humanitarian response in the affected states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe. The NHF-PSI offers a measurable and accountable platform for companies to pool their resources together to more effectively transform the lives of millions of their fellow Nigerians.
To date, the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund has raised $83 million in contributions and pledges, thanks to the generous support of seventeen donor countries. Nigeria boasts one of Africa’s largest economies with an emerging and thriving private sector globally.
The UN and founding private sector members of the initiative are urging more businesses to come together and collaborate under the platform of the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund-Private Sector Initiative.