The Head, European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ambassador Ketil Karlsen, has said that the N21bn (€50m) donated to Nigeria by the EU is la
The Head, European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ambassador Ketil Karlsen, has said that the N21bn (€50m) donated to Nigeria by the EU is largely meant for the poor who depend on the informal markets, who do day-to-day work to put food on their table, the vulnerable people and internally displaced persons, ThePunch is reporting.
Earlier, he had said that the donation was also meant for the provision of Personal Protection Equipment, kits, and to double the testing capacity for COVID-19 in the country. He said, “The pandemic requires global responses and if we try to fix it country by country, we may not get it right and that is why we are adopting a multilateral approach. So, Team Europe came up with a significant package for Nigeria’s poor; we are mobilising €50m and another €1.2m that we already gave as part of humanitarian assistance through UNICEF.”
Karlsen stressed that the EU was concerned about the health and economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, noting that Europe did not want Nigeria to experience what it was going through presently.
Karlsen described the donation, channeled through the United Nations COVID-19 basket fund, as the largest single contribution to the response in Nigeria so far and the largest support that EU is providing anywhere outside Europe. He said, “We heard your call for assistance and the EU has reacted swiftly as a demonstration of our true partnership.”
