About 21,000 Nigerians affected by flood disasters across the country are set to benefit from a Federal Government interest-free loan scheme worth ₦6.3 billion.
The Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Yusuf Sanunu, disclosed this on Monday during a roundtable event held in Abuja to mark the 2025 International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction.
The event was attended by Vice President Kashim Shettima, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State, lawmakers, and international development partners.
Sanunu said the intervention is part of the government’s strategy to reduce the impact of flooding and improve food security across Nigeria. He explained that the initiative would provide economic relief to families who lost their livelihoods to flooding and help farmers recover from losses caused by climate-related disasters.
“As a ministry, under the Hope Agenda of Mr. President, the Ministry has, through the National Social Investment Agency, done very well in improving the resilience of the local community,” Sanunu said. “As of today, in terms of conditional cash transfer, over 8.1 million households in Nigeria have been reached with a total sum of over 300 and something billion naira. This has really improved their capacity, improved their health, and education, and the process will continue.”
He added that the next phase of support will focus on communities severely affected by flooding. “We also are planning, together with both national and state level, to improve on our flood mitigating effect by dolling out, in the next few weeks to come, to 21,000 Nigerians free interest, and also free collateral loan of over 300,000 Naira each,” the minister said. “This is to address the issue of crisis in farming so as to mitigate the interest of flooding in Nigeria.”
The minister also announced new plans aimed at empowering internally displaced persons (IDPs) through programs that create markets for their farm products.
“Already, we have planted a program in collaboration with Federal Minister of Agriculture in addressing the food security of internally displaced persons through the collaboration with internally displaced persons in their camp and host community,” Sanunu explained. “The formula of giving the internally displaced person 30% of the produce produced by the internally displaced persons, and the government will off-take 70% and the money will be given to the internally displaced persons that participated in the scheme as a cash component.”
Speaking earlier, the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Zubaida Umar, highlighted that Nigeria continues to face growing challenges from climate change, conflicts, pandemics, and technological risks. She said these challenges are putting pressure on traditional emergency systems and called for stronger financing mechanisms for disaster management.
According to her, “These events are testing the limits of traditional emergency response systems and demanding a more proactive, preventive, and well-financed disaster risk management framework.”
Umar emphasized the importance of collective action and sustainable funding to strengthen resilience across all sectors. “We must collectively rethink how to fund resilience; to move from reactive, ad-hoc funding of disasters to a multi-stakeholder financing architecture that supports prevention, preparedness, and sustainable recovery,” she said.
During the event, NEMA also launched two major policy instruments that will guide national disaster management efforts in the coming years—the NEMA Strategic Plan (2025–2029) and the National Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy (2025–2030).
“These frameworks are anchored on risk-informed development, innovation in financing, and stronger institutional collaboration, ensuring that disaster risk management becomes an integral part of planning across all sectors,” Umar stated.
She explained that resilience should not be limited to emergency agencies alone but should be integrated into other key sectors such as agriculture, water resources, energy, infrastructure, finance, education, and health.
“In this regard, NEMA is already working with key stakeholders to develop a National Risk Monitoring and Information Platform that will serve as a cross-sectoral system for early warning, vulnerability mapping, and risk-informed investment decisions,” she said.
Umar further noted that discussions on innovative financing mechanisms such as catastrophe bonds, insurance pools, climate funds, and blended finance models are essential to sustaining large-scale disaster risk reduction efforts.