Nigeria Excluded From U.S.’ $91 million COVID-19 Response Fund To Africa

Nigeria has missed out of the United States $91 million COVID-19 response fund to African countries, as the country continues to battle poverty and insecurity.

Jeremy Konyndyk, the executive director of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) COVID-19 task force in a statement made available to Peoples Gazette on Friday while announcing the Western country’s intervention fund to Africa did not list Nigeria amongst the beneficiaries of the $91 million relief fund.

Mr Konyndyk said the relief fund was given to countries across the continent to address urgent humanitarian needs caused by the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

He further detailed that the $91 million will provide needed food assistance, health care, water, and psychosocial support for people across Africa.

“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.

Countries to benefit from the U.S COVID-19 relief fund include Burkina Faso, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, DR Congo, and Mozambique. Others are Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Zimbabwe.

Peoples Gazette had earlier reported that Nigeria lost $40.6 billion alone to insecurity in 2020 as unknown gunmen, killer herdsmen, bandits, Boko Haram, and ISWAP terrorists combined to unleash what many considered unprecedented violence on Africa’s most populous nation last year.

Also, the World Bank Nigeria Development Update said seven million Nigerians plunged below the poverty line in 2020.

The World Bank in a statement on its website on Tuesday said about seven million Nigerians dropped below the poverty line due to an increase in inflation in the country in 2020.