By Haruna Gimba
The Pan-African Agency of Great Green Wall (PGGW) said Nigeria’s take-over of the leadership of the Council of the PGGW would facilitate easier access to about $5 billion dollars in grants and $14 billion dollars loans to member countries.
The loan and the grants would be from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Union Bank as they had expressed support for the GGW programme.
Nigeria’s Environment Minister, Dr Mohammad Abubakar said this while briefing newsmen on important recent developments in the environment sector in Abuja.
He said that one of the developments was Nigeria’s assumption of the GGW Presidency and hosting of the council of presidents of the GGW countries.
He said that 11 countries, namely Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Sudan, made up the GGW support for Nigeria’s presidential aspirations.
According to him, the council believes that President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria was capable of taking the GGW delivery structure to a higher level, if he becomes the Chairman of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of PAN-GGW.
“If the Nigerian President takes over the leadership of the PAN-GGW, it would be easier for the GGW programme to access about $5 billion USD as grant and $14 billion USD soft loan available out there.
“This is because of the respect the world has for President Buhari,” he said.
The minister said that on July 29, 2021 at the 7th Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers of the PAGGW in Nouakchott, Mauritania, the council adopted some development reports.
“The reports included that of Nigeria hosting the 8th ministers meeting of the PAGGW later in the year, as well as hosting the 5th summit of the Heads of State and Government virtually in September, 2021.
“That Buhari assumes the Presidency of the Heads of States and Government of the PAGGW at the end of the 5th Summit, while Abubakar, the minister of environment, assumes the Chairmanship of the Council of Ministers at the end of the 5th Summit” he said.
He added that the Nouakchott meeting also stressed the importance of using the GGW programme to address Africa’s biodiversity problem, as the GGW programme remained the future of Africa.
